How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?
by Sangha
Summary: [COMPLETE] Kaiba is not treated the way you think he is BUT he is looking for a girlfriend! Serenity Wheeler, bless her, is going to help him finding a woman... CHOAS starts with the CEO's lack of flirting skills!
1. The Problem Was

**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

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_Kaiba is honestly looking for a girlfriend? Serenity Wheeler is trying to teach him how to be a gentleman? You say it, the disaster is right in front of them! Fasten your seatbelts for the most incredible duo since Adam and Eve or was it Romeo and Juliet? Laurel and Hardy? However, be prepared for chaos!_

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_**Dedicated to "The Seeker", myself and the big question "Where the hell did I get the idea from?"**_

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_Slight OOC-ness from both characters; though who knows how Serenity's really like? They're older in the story anyway. Our Highness Kaiba is in search for a girlfriend? How much more OOC can he be? If you don't like the pairing, don't read!_

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Chapter One

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**"The problem was…"**

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Seto Kaiba watched his precocious younger brother with interest. Mokuba was just sixteen years old but could flirt a girl's pants off, or so it seemed to his older brother at least. One would think that the young guy was happy to be allowed out that long at night at all, but as if a Kaiba ever wasn't allowed anything! Not possible. Probably Mokuba was the only teenager inside of here, apart from them who were dressed in all black, with bondage shirts, thick black eye-liner beneath and around their eyes, those silver skull rings and smoking till their lungs were as black as them! _Them_, who came sometimes quite close to Mokuba…

But Mokuba shrugged them off, grinning, taking advantage and talking to one of the black dressed girls. At least he wasn't trying to snog older women! With the thought amusing Seto, he made his way over to the bar for a drink. If it weren't for Mokuba, he wouldn't even be here. There were no women worth the effort coming here at all. Anyone of them had at least one "turn-down" and detecting them was a special talent only giving to the blue-eyed CEO. If only there would be one woman without a mistake, without this "turn-down", just made for Seto Kaiba…

Because, you know, the well-known millionaire we all so love had a problem. Yes, a problem. Not a big problem, no; not a small either; simply but dangerously hovering like a cloud above his head he had a _personal_ one! How could that happen, you ask? Well, let's take a look inside of his mind…

Seto Kaiba wished he were as lucky with women as his cute little brother. Or at least as lucky as anyone else because unfortunately and though all the rumors going around about the thousands of women to his feet, there was not a single one who actually liked him. They'd look at him; yes, he was a fine, handsome young man. They'd be impressed by his wealth and his position as the president of a multimillion company; oh yes, anyone should be impressed of what the CEO had achieved so far. But then, they would chat with him and simply turn him down.

Oh. My. God.

People, or rather women, thought of Mr. handsome Kaiba as being an arrogant, selfish, self-absorbed jerk! How could they? Just changing a few words with each other made them think he was cruel even! _He_? _Cruel_? He was kind-hearted and good! He brought toys to the kids! Wasn't he good? Wasn't he? And _if_ he was! At least that's what Seto Kaiba thought…

So you see, the problem was very personal _and_ kind of difficult. There was this twenty-three-year-old, good-looking, rich man who had never a girlfriend in his entire life. Don't you dare saying that it was pathetic! It was. But your punishment for voicing out would be indescribably tragic, for you at least. However, Seto Kaiba wasn't one to give up easily. He spotted a slim built blonde next to him at the bar. His eyes scanned her, the turn-down-detector ready. Hell, she wasn't bad…

"Campari Orange, please." She ordered the barkeeper and waited for her drink to get served.

Swiftly Kaiba let the smallest note he was having right now, a hundred dollar note, wander across the counter to the man bringing her drink. "Here, for her drink."

_Wasn't that man just generous? _

"Errr…thanks." The woman stated and looked at him with her greenish eyes.

"Welcome." Bang! Said. No smile.

"Why did you do that for?" She smiled uneasily.

"Because I wanted to." Why did women felt the urge to question him? "I've seen you and you don't look bad. Though usually, I'm not into blondes." No joke.

"Um…well." Suppressing the urge to raise one of her eyebrows in a skeptic manner the bit of a smile on her face faded. "Are you trying to chat me up?"

"Yes, indeed. I'm looking for a potential girlfriend and I considered you as a candidate. Are you in company?" The turn-down-scan yelled for an alert in Seto's mind. Her nose was obviously a bit too… big. Well-shaped but big. He didn't like big noses.

"I'm not but…" What kind of a psycho would chat a woman up with telling her that he was looking for a 'potential girlfriend and considered her as a candidate', she mocked him in her thoughts. "…what do you want exactly right now?"

"I've told you already. In order to find a girlfriend I'm chatting you up, even though you're blonde and you've got a big nose." A smirk plastered itself on his features.

"Thank you, not necessary." Shaking her head she stood up and left him with the following words: "Stupid asshole!"

That was a problem, wasn't it?

Kaiba's eyes narrowed immediately and he cursed under his breath. Why for God's sake were women so complicated? What had he done wrong now? This was absolutely ridiculous! He shouldn't make himself a complete fool, that's the only thing he had done wrong! Damn those witches cursing him with hormones. And yes, he damn had some! He wasn't cold and he wanted to be liked! By a woman preferably…

Snickering noises disturbed Kaiba's thoughts suddenly and he shifted his gaze backwards where unfortunately some of his favorite geek gang had settled. Great, just great! Had they seen his unsuccessful try to chat up a woman? That would make the situation worse, living hell to be exactly. One of those famous Kaiba fists clenched at the side and a vein popped out on his neck, visibly pulsating with rage, but the CEO closed his eyes, counted to ten and calmed down. The usual attitude was needed, the one showing off how far above anyone and anything else Seto Kaiba was standing!

Turning, the tall brown-haired saw how they immediately stopped giggling as soon as his merciless, famous glare stopped upon them. The mutt's sister gazed in another direction but had obviously a hard time suppressing her giggles. Dice boy next to her flicked a strand of his black hair and our little cyber monkey stared at the mutt's younger sister… all too innocent for Seto's liking but anyway, he made his way over to them.

It was almost impossible that those two idiots were still trying to lay their hands on the small Wheelerette. Obviously she was also one of those men-destroying witches focused on making men's lives hell. Fortunately she was doing that to the cyber monkey and that dice boy! Gladly the mutt was nowhere to be seen. Like Kaiba had mentioned earlier on, he couldn't stand blondes! That included Joey Wheeler and his girlfriend Mai Valentine.

_Oh damn, even the mutt was capable of finding a woman! Please God, why are you punishing our lovely Seto!_

"Shouldn't you kids be in bed already?" Kaiba: one. Geek gang: zero.

"No, we're allowed to watch the late night movie! It's called 'Rejecting Kaiba'…" Tristan burst out laughing and Duke couldn't help joining in.

Kaiba: one. Geek gang: three. (Why? Because they are three people!)

The low dangerous growl should be heard by them; but wasn't. They shouldn't put their lives into danger so easily; but they did. God bless the red-haired witch noticing the little unease of the rich snob.

"I'm thirsty. Would anyone please go and get me a drink?" Batting her eyelashes the two clowns had immediately stopped laughing and they were standing in front of her in order to receive their instructions. "Lemonade please." The kitty purred.

Left were two empty spaces where once a brown-haired spike head and a green-eyed dice dude had been.

"How do you do that?" With narrowed, almost poisoned eyes, the CEO gazed at Serenity Wheeler. He needed to be careful, not to become infected by the virus she possessed.

"What?" She chuckled innocently, but Kaiba could detect smirks half a mile airline and she was definitely developing one.

"_That_. Are those dumb nuts always obeying to you that easily?" Crossing his arms in protection against the little Wheeler witch, the blue-eyed man waited for her reply.

"Well, often." She couldn't help grinning, then giggling, a snicker formed and all the while Kaiba's left eyebrow rose to almost the beginning of his hairline, which nobody had ever seen by the way because of his fringe.

"What's so funny?" He asked in a stern, unimpressed voice.

"Nothing, Kaiba." She laughed shaking her head. "Sorry…"

"The only thing I'd laugh about are the stupid attempts of your two geek clowns trying to impress you!" He snorted. "What's there to impress anyway? Wheeler's are and forever will be pathetic!"

"As pathetic as you chatting up a woman!" Now that b-, sorry, witch was clapping her flat palm against her thigh and laughing the breath out of her lungs!

_Stupid, stupid Wheelerette! She had seen that. Damn her!_

"You should have seen you, Kaiba…" Serenity stuttered in between fits of laughter. "Whoever put up that stick your butt, must have known how funny it would be watching you!"

"Funny, huh?" He growled down at her, thinking she had gone insane by all her lunatic laughing.

"No. No, not funny." She tried to stop her fits of laughter, gazing at him, tears from laughing in her eyes. "Absolutely _hilarious_!"

_And another burst-out of Poison Ivy! Rot in hell, dimwitted female monster!_

"Ow, my belly hurts…"

"THEN STOP LAUGHING!"

"Can't…"

"STOP IT ALREADY!" Obviously his anger was boiling, oh happy day. "YOU GIVE ME A HEADACHE!"

"And you give me a bellyache!" She shot back, her temper growing shorter with his attitude.

"THEN STOP LAUGHING!" He yelled his lungs out at her and made her stop suddenly. "Better… What's so funny about it anyway?"

"The way you're trying to chat up women, that's so funny, if you still don't get it." Shaking her head she replied.

"And what's wrong with the way I'm chatting up women?" He hissed furrowing his brows until his eyes were only slits cut in his face from a very, very sharp knife.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? To start with, women like compliments; not telling them what you do _not_ like about them! Oh Kaiba, and that's only one thing you're doing wrong! Take lessons!" The girl exclaimed slightly losing it.

"I _do_ compliment them!" He shot back fiercely.

"You _what_? That's the overstatement of the year!" Serenity sarcastically remarked, then dangerously flashed her teeth. "You know what? Sometimes you can be a just _real_ pain in the ass!"

"Fine! If I'm that much of a pain, like you say, then why don't you teach me to do better?" His blue-eyed glare burnt mental holes in her head whilst saying that.

Serenity just smirked. "And why would I do that? Wouldn't be as funny anymore…"

"I'm going to pay you."

_Wait a second. _

_Slow. _

_REWIND. _

"_And why would I do that? Wouldn't be as funny anymore…"_

"_**I'm going to pay you." **_

"Pay me?" The auburn-haired held her breath for a second. "Ha-ha-ha, very funny, Kaiba… Not for all the money in the world---"

"Fifty bucks the hour."

FIFTY BLOODY DOLLAR THE HOUR?

Serenity's brain tried to calculate. Kaiba needed a lot of teaching.

"You'll need a lot of them." She remarked slyly. Fifty bucks the hour, one hour each day, working one week would already mean… 350$!

_**$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ CASH $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$**_

"I don't care." He wanted someone to be with; that was for sure. "And I bet you could need the money."

"You're really serious about this, aren't you?" Or was the damn bastard kidding?

"Two hours a day and I give you one week exactly. With obvious success you'll get paid another 100$. Deal?"

She felt slightly nauseous. Two hours a day; one week; plus 100 for obvious success meant…

_**8 0 0 $ **_

_**KA-CHING!**_

"Deal."

"We'll start tomorrow." Kaiba nodded in agreement.

"7pm."

"8pm and at my house. I'll be expecting you no word about it to anyone or else I'm going to haunt you down the jungle! And don't you dare kidding me!" He snapped one last time and flashed with his blue eyes dangerously before he turned to leave.

And there she stood, Serenity Wheeler, younger sister of Joey Wheeler, lovely and innocent, soon owner of 800$. The only problem was…

HOW THE HELL SHOULD SHE TEACH KAIBA CHATTING UP WOMEN?

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End of chapter one.


	2. Day One

_**Thanks** for the reviews so far!_

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**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

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Chapter Two

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"**Day One"**

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"You're late!" Kaiba exclaimed to the small grown young woman who looked grimly at him in response.

"Listen Kaiba, I've got a University to attend, a childish pizza-stuffing messy older brother and now _you_, I've got to deal with. So shut the hell up, it's just five past eight!" Out of breath Serenity's face went from the usual peachy color to a furious red.

Kaiba smirked. "Are you feeling sick? You're all red over the face."

"GRRR!"

If you didn't know, Seto Kaiba loved to annoy. It was like a hobby and apparently there was no one else but him and Serenity Wheeler in the room. So add one and one and you see, she was the next available victim. Did I mention that they were in his office at home? Taking lesson meant work. So Kaiba assumed the office was adequate.

"Take a seat." The brown-haired man motioned for her to sit down on the sofa while he was sitting down opposite her. "What do you want me to do?"

"Huh?"

"Remember? You. Me. Teaching. Hello? Anybody inside?" He waved a hand in front of her face but she slapped it away.

"I KNOW THAT!" The hazel-eyed girl growled at him. "Shut up now."

"Okay." He crossed his arms and leant back, waiting for her lesson to start. From time to time he raised an eyebrow in order to urge her on but she didn't say anything. "Well?"

"I don't know where to start." Serenity stood up and walked up and down the room until she came to an abrupt halt. Triumphantly she pointed her index finger in the air and gazed at Kaiba. "In order to teach you, I need to know about your deficits beforehand."

"Deficits?"

"Yes. I want you to imagine I'm a girl you want to chat up." Serenity sat back on the sofa, crossed her legs elegantly and gazed at the empty space next to her as if she was watching an imaginary friend (or so). "Go on."

"Ridiculous." Kaiba muttered and huffed a breath.

"No, this isn't ridiculous. Imagine I'm the girl you want to chat up. I sit here and stare into… nothing actually. I'm bored. You see me and you want to talk to me. Now go one and say something!"

Kaiba wondered if she told the empty space next to her or him. Wheeler had her eyes fixed on whatever and wouldn't look at him. Funny somehow.

"Well?" Gazing across her shoulder her eyes finally met him with a glare. She really expected him to act with her in this role play. She must be insane!

"I can't."

"Wha--- Why?"

"I wouldn't chat you up if you were the last woman on earth." The blue-eyed CEO told her honestly and truthfully but with a small smirk coming through his cold façade.

"ARG!" Like thunder and lightning the little red-head turned and glared with burning eyes. Seto swore they were on fire. "That's not the point, Kaiba! Imagine I'm someone else!" She screamed at him.

"Oh… then." He drew small circles in the air with his index finger. "Turn around."

The woman did as she was told. "Now, say whatever you'd say in order to chat someone up."

Silence.

"Kaiba, I dare you!"

"I CAN'T!"

"WHY THE HELL THIS TIME?"

"I see you. I know who you are!"

"THEN CLOSE YOUR DAMN EYES!" She shouted at him and turned back. "Will you do that now?"

"Fine."

"Eyes closed?" She wanted to be sure this time.

"Eyes closed." He assured her.

"Then imagine a girl you'd like to chat up. I am her, sitting here and I'm bored. Now go on…" Serenity prayed to god above that the damn smart ass would finally do it!

"Hello." He said monotonously.

"The nicest you can, please." She already corrected him and he gritted his teeth.

"Hello." He tried more friendly but how much more friendly could he sound through gritted teeth while his eyes were narrowed to these blue blazing slits? Right, not very friendly. But Serenity decided to let it slip. "Do you want to drink something… with me?"

Serenity turned and looked at him. Actually he was looking quite funny with his eyes closed and that uneasy expression. She suppressed the gurgle rising in her throat. "Why would I do that?"

"Huh?" Kaiba opened one eye suspiciously. "You still playing your role, Wheeler?"

"Of course, go on. I asked you, why would I do that?" She smiled at him, flirting.

_So this was meant teasingly! Yes! Poor Seto…_

"Because I asked you to."

_Why else?_

"Hm…I'm not sure." She laid a finger on her chin and gazed up at the ceiling. "Convince me."

"Wha---hmph. Well…" He thought for a moment. "I'm going to pay."

The girl with the long auburn hair cringed visibly.

_This won't function! No, no, no, no, no. no, no, no…_

"Pay? Try it without impressing a woman with money!" She ordered.

"Grrr…" Kaiba felt highly fooled right now. "What do you want me to say instead? This is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. We should forget about this whole deal about you teaching me. It won't function anyway!"

"How can you be sure?" Serenity shot back. "I am teaching you right now, telling you not to impress with money, so? Will you just come up with something else to convince me? That's all I'm asking of you but hell, if you want to chicken out, fine. It's not me who wants a girlfriend!"

"I don't want to chicken out!"

"No? Then why don't you just play along and listen to my advise?" She scoffed.

"Easier said than done. Tell me how to impress with other than money!" He hissed.

"Well… what are your qualities?"

Kaiba looked at her blankly, then said, "My wealth, my achievements, my intelligence, my company, my dueling skills…"

"Hm, wait a second. All these things are great but I doubt you can convince a woman to drink something with you by telling her anything like that. Can we try something else?"

"And what might that be?"

"Let me chat you up and you can see how I do it."

"Good. I always wanted to know how girls chat up men."

"Um…" Serenity blinked. "I meant I'm the man and you are the girl."

"You must be kidding me! I won't play a girl." Kaiba had no clue why she pestered him that much.

"You don't have to dress up as such, Kaiba! Just sit there and let me chat you up. Imagine, I'm a guy, that's it! Can you do that? Now? Can you?" Nearly freaking Serenity glared daggers at the blue-eyed dragon-like fiery and cold all the same time but handsome man.

"Fine." He turned and smirked avoiding to meet her eyes until she had spoken to him.

"Hello. I've noticed you for a while and I was wondering if you might like to drink something with me?" She really, _really_ tried her best.

"Actually, I don't know." Kaiba replied snappy but girlish. "Convince me!"

The girl couldn't help rolling her eyes. "Well, I wouldn't ask if I could see past you but that's too much to ask because you're really attractive. Please don't send me away."

Kaiba's head turned slowly, his smirk playing funnily on his lips. "I knew you can't resist me."

"KAIBA!"

"Are you girls really falling for that crap? _I wouldn't ask if I could see past you but I can't because you're sooo fat that nobody else fits into the same room as you…_" He mocked playful.

Dryly Serenity said, "Add humor to your qualities. You can be sooo funny."

"Thanks."

"Save it, Kaiba. Just one thing, seriously. If you want to ask a girl if she wants to drink something with you, then ask 'would you like to…' instead of 'do you want to…'. Sounds nicer, you know?" The small woman massaged her temples. This would grow to a headache later. She was sure on her part.

"Ah…" Swiftly his hand grabbed for a pen and he began to write on a notepad.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to write down your advise. This is a lesson. I should make notes." He replied without gazing at her.

By the way our favorite CEO had a beautiful handwriting. That's at least what Serenity thought of it. She had seen him a few times on a computer but he was actually able to write, _manual_, with his hand, the right one in his case. _He was human! Bless him!_

"Am I allowed asking you something, Kaiba?" She cynically dared to say.

"No, I'm not interested in you." He stated simply with a big smirk.

"_That's not what I wanted to ask_!" She nearly screamed in his cold face.

"What else?" Unimpressed he replied.

"Did you… Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

"No."

Serenity wouldn't have expected such a direct answer to her question.

"That's why you're here." He added though and dedicated his attention to the notepad again.

"But… never mind." No need to push his buttons, the anger ones she thought of. Sure, it wasn't a topic the cold-hearted CEO would like talking about.

"Just say that you think how sad that is. Pathetic even, huh? No need to keep it inside." His stare hit her so sudden that she slightly flinched.

"Well, if it lightens up your mood, I have never had a boyfriend either." Casually she crossed her legs and leant back, crossing her arms.

"Ha! What about spike head and dice boy? You honestly want to tell me, they do all of this for you if they get nothing out of it?" _Ridiculous!_

"Hey! I can't help it if they won't give up!" Serenity glared offended at a doubtful glancing Kaiba.

"They're idiots." Obviously as she wasn't even worth the effort.

"They're my friends though." If she really told them that there wouldn't be a chance in hell for them, would they still be there? She wasn't so sure after all.

"Not that I care." He shrugged with a wide smirk.

"Tell me Kaiba." She began.

"What?" The smirk stayed in place.

"I've seen your brother and may I say he seems really skilled in the techniques of chatting up. So why don't you just ask him instead of me? Not that I complain but a) you could save the money and b) you would spare me a headache." She gave a damn about the money right now. THAT smirk really gave her a headache, one resuming in punching the lights out of Mr. Smart Ass soon if he didn't stop.

"Right. But…" He took a deep breath. "We don't want me to end up with a fourteen-year-old, now do we? Mokuba knows a lot of things but I doubt he'd get far with mature women. Clear?" He shrugged. "Can we go back to our lesson now?"

"Course. Can we give it another try if you don't mind?" Serenity turned back facing nothing but the empty place next to her. "I'm the girl, you're the man, chat me up."

Kaiba groaned but took a breath in order to play his role. "Hi."

Serenity turned with raised eyebrows. This didn't make it easier for him! He stared at her for a moment forcing his mind not to think of the fact that THE WHEELERETTE was the object he needed to practice with. Opposite him, Serenity wondered. Why in hell hadn't he closed his eyes? Wasn't it robbing his ability to role play with her?

And holy crap had he _eyes_! **_Woah_**… Piercing, cold, penetrating, beautiful, straight, wrenching…

"I was wondering if you _would like to_ drink something with me?"

"Huh?" And Serenity snapped out of her dream, already comparing Kaiba's blue eyes with the ocean, the sky, a swimming pool though that would be water again, sapphires... BUT he made her snap back into reality and she gazed at him dumbfounded.

"ARE YOU DAYDREAMING OR WHAT? I'M NOT PAYING YOU INCOMPETENT FOOL FOR DAYDREAMING!" No one messed with the lovely, bright-natured, friendly president of damn Kaiba Corporations, which is one of the most successful companies in the damn world for a damn _reason_, damn it!

"Why are you freaking, _you_… _FREAK_?" Serenity wasn't one to mess with, either. The small Wheeler had developed quite a temper since Battle City!

"I don't FREAK! You're DAYDREAMING when you should teach me!" He thundered at her with furious – add it to the list above – eyes.

"I was NOT daydreaming!"

"You bloody were!"

"STOP CURSING!" She screamed.

"Don't tell me what to do in my own house, Wheeler!" He shouted back.

"GRRR!"

A teenager, almost the seize of Seto Kaiba, slim build, wearing a black shirt and blue jeans, stood in the door for a while now and his eyes shifted from the tall-grown brown-haired to the small-framed girl and back, repeatedly, for quite a while now. His jet black hair swayed on top of his head and across his shoulders. What a scenario he thought and wondered what was going on here.

"JUST DON'T ACCUSE ME FOR DAYDREAMING!"

"BUT YOU _FUCKING_ WERE!"

"QUIT THE CURSING, BOY!"

"DON'T TALK LIKE YOU WERE MY MOTHER!"

_Oh, they were quite obsessed with using capital letters by the way._

"YOU STARTED WITH THIS!"

"ME? YOU WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION. I WILL SUBTRACT THAT FROM YOUR PAYMENT!"

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"

"I _BLOODY_ CAN DO WHATEVER I _DAMN_ WANT TO DO!"

"BLOODY CURSER YOU!"

"YOU'VE CURSED YOUSELF!"

"SO?"

And this was the point when the most attractive sixteen-year-old in Domino (or maybe the whole world) couldn't take it anymore. The face of the girl had the color of her hair and his dear brother's eyes were lost in between two slits though glaring daggers at her.

"_WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" _Mokuba shouted from the top of his voice. This would need a lot of tea with honey and citron later.

"…"

"…"

"Hmph! She started the shouting!"

"I- WHAT?"

"YOU WERE DAYDREAMING IF YOU FORGOT!"

"I WERE NOT!"

"_SHUUUUUT THE FUCK UUUUUUUUP!"_ Mokuba's throat felt sour.

"…"

"…"

"But…" Serenity began.

"Will you just shut up now?" The raven-haired teen growled.

"She was…" This time Seto tried his luck but didn't come very far.

"BOTH OF YOU, DAMN IT!" Roaring now from his down-cut patience Mokuba waved with his hands in frustration and anger. "Are you children or what is going on? What are you doing here at all apart from fighting? The both of you will shut up now, GOT THAT?"

Sheepishly the girl gazed down at the ground. A boy younger than she was told her what she had done wrong and the worst part was, he was right about their chilish behavior. Though she'd go to hell and back but not admit that she had been daydreaming! Anyway, she felt ashamed of herself.

Seto on the other hand crossed his arms and pouted. Yes, he pouted. He could do with anything but not becoming told what he should do. Then again, this was Mokuba and if Mokuba told him something… you know the rest. He would do it. Just like that. Seto somehow obeyed to Mokuba and this was good after all, otherwise I'd have to write countless pages with Seto and Serenity arguing what may be funny but become boring with the pages passing… however.

"Now, will you two tell me what is going on here? What are you both doing here at all?" Mokuba stood there and waited for them to reply but got no response, apart from both of them agreeing with one answer, one word, the same time.

"**Nothing."**

Seto glared at Serenity.

Serenity glared at Seto.

They both gazed sheepishly at Mokuba who let out an exaggerated sigh and blew strands of black hair from out of his eyes.

"Fine. Then I will leave you two to whatever you're doing. BUT, if I hear anyone of you yell again, then be prepared for the worst." He scolded with his index finger waving before he glared like an old stubborn grandfather and finally, disappeared.

Then silence in the room. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Serenity sighed. "Your brother's right. I apologize for acting so childish."

Kaiba gazed at the woman. "Hmph. Yeah." His way of agreeing and voicing out an apology.

"Shall we go on now with the lesson?" The girl swiftly pushed back a strand of auburn hair behind her shoulder and gazed at the bottom of their whole argument, his damn blue eyes for God's sake!

Until those eyes closed briefly. "I think we should go on tomorrow."

"Yeah, good idea. We should take it more professional from there." Serenity lifted her body from the sofa she was still sitting on and grabbed her purse.

"I agree with that." Kaiba stood up as well, gazing down at her. Oh well, she was small compared to him. He _kind of_ liked that.

A furious little witch she was! How the tell she should teach him really was far beyond his imagination. Well, she seemed indeed knowing the things Kaiba needed to learn. That was at least something, after all. And who was there other to ask then the cute little Wheeler?

Ooops! Did he just think that or was it an author's mistake? The guess is yours.

"Good night, Kaiba. See you then tomorrow." She spoke, not daring to look at him while she made sure of distance between them. It was an unwelcome feeling of unease to gaze up at him. _Why_? She had absolutely no clue!

"8pm sharp, Wheeler."

"Yeah, yeah…"

Seto gazed at the door Serenity Wheeler had disappeared through with a smirk. If they would succeed with the lessons, **jackpot baby**, but _if_ not, consider the possibility, if _not_ then it was worth the annoying of that female demon within angelic skin!

Seto grinned.

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End of chapter two.

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_(The story forms slowly – I still need to know if it's worth continuing, so please review and tell me what you think of it! Thank you…)_


	3. Day Two

**Ah, _thank you very much_ for the reviews! Nice to know you like it. **

_Gotta have to say that it went quite slow with this chapter because I was mentally somewhere else (seen Rob Thomas' new video – pictures of swaying hips in tight, tight jeans flashing in my brain – hopeless)._

Gladly I found this little book – a big **THANK YOU** to Nicki who gave me the book to my 21st b-day! It's called "Rendezvous for dumb" and it's very helpful with this story!

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**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

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Chapter Three

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"**Day Two"**

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7:55 pm, the Kaiba residence, a very rich and handsome CEO opened the door for his 'flirting teacher'.

"You're early!" Kaiba said with fake friendliness.

Serenity smirked. "Smart ass, let me in." She pushed her way free to enter the Kaiba mansion. Steering herself up the stairs she already knew where to find his office.

Kaiba followed quietly.

Slumping down on the sofa the young woman sighed. "I've been thinking about ways to teach you, you know?"

"Uhu… and? Found anything?" He sat opposite her, stiff as ever, the cold piercing stare of his eyes in place as well as the thin line of his lips. The only thing different was the color of his shirt today, which was light blue instead of white. Apart from that he wore the usual black trousers, the usual black shoes, the usual slightly loosened tie, the usual hairdo… well, that didn't really count, did it?

"I've thought about asking Joey for some help but – save the comment Kaiba – he just had luck with Mai. Then I thought about asking Mai. I mean she has quite some experience. A lot of men tried their luck with her but, due to the fact that she's Joey's girlfriend, I doubt she'd be able to keep it a secret from my brother. Then I thought about Duke, you know? He's something like 'the king of flirting' like Michael Jackson is the 'king of pop' or Elvis is the 'king of Rock'n'Roll' or Yugi is the 'king of games'…"

The sudden glare of two blue orbs made her hold her breath.

"Sorry Kaiba, I know, the old wound… however. The thing is I'm not convinced about Duke's tactics in flirting. Girls like him anyway, just because of his good looks and the way he is and all but his rhymes don't really get to me, you know what I mean?"

"Not exactly." Kaiba replied doubtful. She could talk quite a lot, that's what he's gotten from out of her speech.

"I mean, Duke's kind of straight forward when it comes to asking someone out, he knows what to say to make a girl blush, he says romantic things…" She sighed dreamily before her eyes narrowed. "But, he can scare someone off as well. So I doubt I should teach you to be like him."

Kaiba just yawned. "Are we getting somewhere with this?"

"Yes. Because I filtered the good points of everyone I know and I'm going to teach you just that." A reassuring nod followed her sentence and two determined hazel eyes gazed at the lazily looking CEO in the chair.

"I'm ready for everything." In this very second his stomach made an awful harassing noise but he simply smirked coolly. "Well, maybe not really. I'm going to order something to eat first." He picked up the receiver of his house phone and dialed an unfamiliar (to Serenity) number. "Kaiba. Bring something to eat and tea… yes… the usual… in the office… HURRY!" Then he turned back to Serenity and focused his eyes on her waiting figure.

The woman had stared at him wonderment. _The manners of that guy!_ Couldn't he at least ask if she wanted something as well, even though she would have refused; definitely. She didn't even seem worth something to drink like a glass of lemonade, a glass of simple water or the question at all. That guy had some nerve here!

"We can start now if you're ready." Kaiba simply said with no off showing emotion.

"Hmmm… yes. Sure." Taking a deep, calming, breath Serenity thought of something to begin with and as she was gazing at the half frozen appearing face with no off showing emotion in any way, which was sadly upon the neck of a very attractive young CEO, she immediately knew what she needed to change on Seto Kaiba. "First thing, could you try to smile?"

Kaiba stared at the girl opposite him and scowled. "Why?"

Yes, Seto _really_ had no idea why. Why smile? He was here to learn, not to smile. No joke.

"Because you'd certainly look nicer." The auburn-haired lifted both of her hands as if she wanted to carry the air and shrugged. "A woman will only find interest in you when you look friendly, nice and charming."

"_I am_ friendly, nice and charming. I really _do not _need to smile to prove that." Stubbornly Kaiba insisted but when it came to criticize himself he had really some hallucinations and needed a psychiatrist to tell him that he wasn't quite objective in this case.

"But you do." Serenity simply said in a dull tone. "I tell you Kaiba, you _need_ to prove that you're friendly, nice and charming. Just smile, otherwise I don't see a chance for you to become recognized as even something similar to friendly, nice or charming!"

"Hmph." The information had to sink in, worked out and finally understood. "Fine. Then I smile."

Serenity waited. One, no smile, two, no smile, three, no smile, four, no smile, five, no smile… "What are you waiting for?"

"_What do you want?"_ Kaiba hissed, the two amazingly blue eyes formed to slits again, two deep wrinkles of anger between his right and left eyebrows. Gladly they were hidden behind those chestnut colored strands of hair falling into his face.

"_Smile!" _She exclaimed like an Indian praying for rain, just that she wasn't dancing around the room singing 'hei-a-hey' or something like that.

What then happened isn't to describe easily. Kaiba indeed forced a smile. But you know how it is with forced smiles. They never seem to be rich and bright, let alone reach the eyes as people say. With the corners of his mouth rising slightly Kaiba's upper lip rose as well, showing a toothy smile, which was in the end more creepy than charming.

Effect failed.

Serenity swallowed and smiled nervously herself. Seto's creepy smile stayed in place, not faltering, looking scarier than the worst horror movie you've ever seen. Would Michael Myers be able to smile, you might compare him to Seto Kaiba right now. Though there was potential because of his actual attractive features, high cheekbones and bright white teeth, it still was the most forced smile you've ever seen. The usual smirk was having a calming effect comparing to _that_ smile.

"Uh… okay… hm… well…" The stammering didn't bring the hazel-eyed girl any further. "Good for now. Maybe we should go one with phrases, yes phrases, phrases you might combine with a smile… or maybe not and just go with the phrases."

"Gladly." Seto muttered when he relaxed the muscles of his cheeks and went back to use the muscles of his jaw, pressing his teeth against themselves in order to keep the normal thin line of his lips. This somehow was much more relaxing to him than smiling!

"Duke once said to me something like 'hey sweetie, you're the content of my dreams and restless nights, tell me, I'm not dreaming right now'. Like I said, something similar he said to me and really, it scared me. I don't want to be the content of his restless nights… ahem." She coughed. "Never go with hey sweetie."

"So no 'hey sweetie' and no telltales about dreams and restless nights. I think I got that." Once again Kaiba had his notepad ready and scribbled down the advices Serenity was giving him.

"I think, you should just try to be casual and say something like 'I've noticed you a while ago'; then compliment her."

"And what should I compliment her about?"

"Whatever you like about her. Maybe her hair, or her smile, perfume might be okay and well, eyes are always good…" Serenity shrugged at a rather helpless looking Seto Kaiba. "Do you need an example?"

"Guess." He replied almost bashfully.

"Well, tell her that you noticed her because of her nice smile and her pretty blue eyes."

"And if I don't like blue eyes?" One of his eyebrows rose skeptically.

"Then tell her about her warm brown eyes if you like brown ones!" She shot at him slightly annoyed.

"And if she's got no nice eyes at all?"

"Kaiba! Grrr… That doesn't matter! _Whatever_ you like about her, tell her!" Near screaming Serenity really found his questions annoying.

"Can I say that she's got a really nice dress'?" He tried, he really, _really_ tried, the poor guy…

"If you want to sound like a professional fashion designer, or worse." She smirked. "Gay."

Well, somehow, she liked it to make fun of him. Even if it was true, that he might be mistaken for gay when he just said the above mentioned. Imagine how hilarious Kaiba would be as gay! Ha-ha.

'_Oh daaarlin', let me look at you! I'd die to wear the same dress as you!' _

Ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha. Wouldn't he look funny in a dress?

"I'm not gay!" He snarled at her in a voice, so that the gayest gay in the world would switch again back to straight!

Blink! Blink! Serenity snapped out of her dream about Kaiba wearing a black tight dress with feathers in his brown strands of hair… however, back in reality he surely wasn't gay at all. _That sex bomb of an ice cube._

"Well, don't go with the dress."

Don't wear any; don't mention any; just don't.

"Ah… so I simply might go with, 'you've got really beautiful black hair'?" Kaiba slowly got the hint what to tell a woman. Slowly.

"Yes!" Serenity happily exclaimed. It was a first step in the right direction. Then her smile faded. "Do you prefer black hair?"

The CEO gazed at her as if she was dumb. But naively he asked, "Is this important for the lesson?"

The auburn-haired had meanwhile used the time to curse herself to hell mentally. Holy Jesus Christ, why had she asked him that? _That_! As _if_ she would care! She couldn't care less! _He_ of all people should be asking _her_ that question! She had options. Kaiba had none. _Right_?

"Yes, it is." She answered, hoping she could come up with something as a reason as to why it was, or should be, important for the lesson.

"Is this a trap?" He suspiciously asked and boy, he actually thought the question might be a trap of her. No idea about the true reason what would be her stupidity, and this was good, at least for Serenity.

"No." The girl had actually lost track of why he might ask. She was mentally excusing her own stupid question already.

"Good, because it doesn't really matter to me." He replied. "Now, why is this important for the lesson?"

_She knew it! Knew it! Knew it! Knew it! He had to ask, that intelligence beast! Grrr!_

"Because… well it is because…"

"Because?"

_Ah, there were little devilish flames in his eyes! Arg!_

"Because two of three woman have dyed hair." True. But stupid, _stupid_ excuse. "You know, you should not compliment the color itself if it looks too fake."

"How do I know?" The hell he was annoyed already! It seemed just too complicated for him.

"Just don't say anything about the color! Tell her, you like the hairdo or something."

And our flirting student scribbled down notes.

"Can we try?"

**_STOP!_** (_You hear screeching tires._) **What was that again? **_HE_ wanted to try?

"Okay." The doubt played its games within her voice but she couldn't help it. She stood up, walking a few steps, facing the window, looking bored - extremely bored I might add - and waited for his 'chat-up-attempt'.

Seto stood up as well. Behind her he coughed and said, "Hi".

Serenity turned and her eyes met his. "Hi."

So, _no_ smile but he _did_ look nice somehow; his eyes somehow gave the impression of one degree above zero instead of the usual fifty degrees beyond! _That_ was something, wasn't it?

"I was thinking that it might be nice talking to you because you've got such a beautiful smile. I hope you don't mind me saying that."

A smile had spread itself across the girl's face during him speaking. It was broad, bright and huge actually because, simply, she was proud of him! He did that fantastic so far! And he did look indeed appealing when he talked like that. So _if_ our handsome, good-looking, stunningly blue-eyed, tall and well-built CEO found the right words, he would have all the chances in the world!

If even _Serenity_ thought so…

But then…

_That_ thought…

**Oh no.**

Pink color! Red color! Purple color! _Damn him_! Serenity blushed and… ducked.

"Was I any good?"

_Oh boy, he was._

Thankful prayers to God he didn't see her face! She coughed. Problem! Alert! Help! She couldn't face Kaiba the way she was looking right now. She felt like a red-hot chili pepper! Hot, hot, hot! Cool down girl, she told herself. She was a complete idiot!

"Mr. Kaiba? Tea and dinner's ready."

Praise the servant! He is our savior! Kiss his feet!

The tell brunette turned and gave a thankful nod to the servant with the tray(s). Well, there was a main servant with two tea sets; two steps behind were two supporting servants with food. About the sets and the kinds of food Serenity couldn't tell at the moment; neither can I because I'm with the poor chili husk(1) right now.

"Gladly, I'm starving." Seto muttered and let the servants place the tea and food on the sofa table. "Wheeler, get your butt over here. _We're dining_." He rolled the last bit off his tongue, mocking good manners as if playing his role still.

After three mental slaps across her face Serenity had finally turned back to her normal peachy color in the face. It helped of course seeing Kaiba being back the old grumpy, moody, insensitive, cold, mean and truly non-appealing self. A sigh of relief escaped the girl and she strolled to where the table was set with all kinds of yummy food.

Salad, sausages, potatoes, chicken wings, rice, vegetable, desserts… **Jesus, this was heaven! **(Bells are ringing in the background to 'Ode to Joy'.)

And the table was set for **_two_**… _how sweet! _

"Sit and stop staring." Kaiba said and sighed at her big eyes, growing wider and wider as they were scanning the table. "Sit kitty!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?"

"Nothing. I haven't said anything." Kaiba smirked and began towering his plate with huge amounts of different salads.

"I've heard it." The woman muttered and slowly sat down on the seat. Happily she grabbed for a wing of chicken and took a bite. HEAVENLY!

"Don't east too much, Wheeler. With your size I bet you must see after your weight quite a lot." Annoying Wheelers was sooo much fun, hey! Fun, fun, fun!

"Are you picking on my height, Kaiba?" The female demon hissed at the great demon lord. "Well, at least I'm not somewhere in the clouds, so that my head gets big like yours!"

"Touchy." Kaiba laughed the famous cold, creepy laugh. Shudder. Room temperature: beyond zero.

Serenity just smirked and picked up one of the sausages with her fork, before shoving it purposefully slow into her mouth. No, no, don't think; let me tell. She wanted to make sure that she could eat whatever she wanted and didn't give a damn about what Kaiba thought of her in any possible way.

Of course it had quite a different effect on him. Because he thought: _WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS SHE DOING?_ The girl stuffed slowly and purposefully the end of one sausage in her mouth and look, how these pouty lips closed around that poor sausage. He swallowed and cursed any man's fantasies and late night movies!

**_Ow_**. And she bit down on it.

Kaiba coughed. He had no clue about his wide-eyed stare and his slightly gaping jaw. Then he rose one of his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side.

"Mmh. Yummy! You know, Kaiba," she spoke with her mouth full, "I can eat and eat and east and I won't become fat. Because it's in the genes… Hm, why are you staring at me?"

_Ever wanted to be a sausage, baby?_

"The genes, huh?" A smirk grew on his face. He found it quite amusing. His thoughts might have been dirty but he was the master of acting cold after all and _he was for a reason_! He just had no idea how to put that girl's little show.

"Yeah," She shrugged. "Joey can eat as much as he wants to as well and won't go fat either."

"Uh…" He-he. This was fun. "And does he eat like you do, yeah?"

"Worse."

Kaiba snickered and picked his fork into the salad, then shoving it in his mouth and shaking his head slightly. That one was really something else! He had never met someone like the little Wheeler and met he had a lot of women. They just had refused him but that was off topic right now at this very moment. Serenity, the redheaded witch, amused him! _HIM_! Great.

"Oh by the way, Kaiba, there are even some sorts of food you should avoid, especially when you go on a date or beforehand, if you want to chat someone up as well." Back to teacher mode Serenity wasn't as funny – how sad.

"And what might that be?"

"First of all garlic."

"Clear." He nodded.

"Then corncobs. They're smelly things as well." The teacher said.

"Though, I like them. Anyway, go on." He dully remarked cocking his head to the side.

"Very important, poppy seeds!" She scolded now with a threatening index finger.

"Because they might stick in between the teeth."

Kaiba was a good student, wasn't he?

"Right. And popcorn as well."

"Same reason obviously."

"French onion soup." She added to the list.

"Why French? Onion soup should be rated illegal anyway. And what about onion at all? Onion's allowed but no '_French onion soup'_?" Now, he had a point.

"Well, yes. No onion at all. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Seto nodded his head. "More?"

"Well, spareribs. Absolutely not allowed, especially on dates. Also grilled chicken and food you get dirty, smelly and fatty fingers from!"

"Alright."

"And finally, watermelon." Serenity said with a smile.

"Why not watermelon?" He definitely needed enlightening on that one.

But his teacher shrugged. "No idea actually. I've read the last one in some magazine."

"_What_ magazine?"

There are a lot: cooking magazines, the daily newspaper, or the worst: women magazines.

'_DON'T EAT WATERMELON ON A DATE! Read now why watermelon is the reason for 98 percent of all rendezvous to go wrong.' _

"I think I read it in some girl's magazine." Serenity scratched her head thoughtfully. "Does it really matter if you're allowed eating watermelon? Eat strawberries, cherries, apples, pineapple or whatever you actually like; it doesn't have to be watermelon anyway, does it?"

"Guess not." He reached for the pen the write down the list of non-allowed food.

_Garlic.  
__Corncobs.  
__Poppy seeds.  
__Popcorn.  
__Onion.  
__Spareribs.  
__Grilled chicken.  
__Watermelon._

Gazing at his list he read it once again out loud, making sure he hadn't forgotten anything.

"Now, are you two setting up the wedding banquet?"

Serenity gasped and blushed. Seto glared, and _how_ he glared. How dare his younger sibling eavesdrop and sneak inside the room to ask a question as ridiculous as this? Bad Mokie, bad boy, very bad.

"Nice to know you're still alive. I already asked my secretary to write down any demands for taking you hostage!" Kaiba was a smart one, after all. Switching the topic and being funny in _one_ sentence was a masterpiece and deserved a doctor's title.

Serenity snickered silently.

"Very funny, Seto." Mokuba said and smirked at his smart ass of a brother. "I've been on a date. Sorry if I interrupt yours."

"THIS IS NO DATE!" Teacher _and_ student said.

_Grrr, how dare he? Anubis' wrath won't fail to get you, boy._

"Then, it's not." Mokuba shook his head. "I'm in my room if you need me." Shrugging the younger Kaiba left his brother and his 'girlfriend'.

What else should Mokuba think after all? Serenity Wheeler was in their house for the second time in row; both times in the evening; quite late; they were dining together; she was a Wheeler and Wheelers usually weren't allowed anywhere near Seto Kaiba; what was the reason for her privileges other than if she wasn't Seto's _girlfriend_?

In the office Serenity felt slightly at unease. She didn't want to be pronounced as Seto Kaiba's girlfriend and she didn't want to be the reason for the Kaiba brothers to argue. Plus she was tired and stuffed. This wasn't good. She needed to shower and get ready for going out with some friends.

So she stood up. "I think I better get going now. It's late and I promised Tristan to go to cinema with him."

Seto gazed at her from his sitting position with a somehow pouting look. "Did you eat the Barbecue sauce?"

"Yeah, why?"

"There's onion and garlic in it." Kaiba smirked.

Our blue-eyed CEO wasn't jealous, certainly not. The point was that he was envious. The girl had a date and he had nothing, and that on a Friday evening! _Perfect_! Not that he would like to switch with Serenity; going out on a date with the cyber monkey wasn't on top of his to-do-list; neither was it mentioned at all. It was just that _she_ had a social life and _he_ not!

"You can always come with us, Kaiba. Then we both smell of garlic and onion." Serenity smiled. Something told her that the brunette with that pout didn't want to be left alone.

But Kaiba switched back to, well, Kaiba-mode, and snorted. "_Me_? Come with you? Not in your most secret fantasies!" A bit of a cold laugh was added to his arrogant expression. "No, no, go on your date with Tristan and have fun with the spike head."

"_IT'S NOT A DATE!"_

**Wow**. Was that really _she_ that screamed at him one second ago?

Kaiba just smirked. "Yeah, right." As _if_.

Crossing her arms Serenity glared at him. "Oh well, think what you want. It's not as if I care what _you_ think. Nice evening, Kaiba."

Seto grinned when the small-framed girl stormed out of his house; then he yelled, "See you tomorrow Wheeler!"

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End of chapter three.

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(1) – I found four translations for 'Schote' – husk, boll, pod and the last one I forgot. However, I just picked one by guess. Hope it makes sense. If not, sorry.

_**Please review!**_


	4. Day Three

_A quite long chapter this time… I needed quite long, too. I hope it's still funny. I haven't read it beta, sorry for any possible mistakes! Thank you very much for your reviews, dear readers – I love you more than I love Kaiba! ;D _

_**BIG SORRY** for posting the first chapter as fourth chapter last night – I wanted to replace the first chapter but, ahem, I've read a fanfiction whilst trying to do so and then, suddenly, oops, you know… forgive me? Please... _

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**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

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Chapter Four

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"**Day Three"**

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Surprisingly, on the third day, Kaiba didn't open the door himself for Serenity to come in. She was led into his office by a simple maid, one she had never seen before, as well as the other sixty percent of the staff. Silently they climbed the stairs that led to the first floor, where Kaiba was working his ass off, day in, day out, after work actually! _Pathetic workaholic._

Much more surprising was that he didn't welcome her with one of his smart ass classic statements, but with worse, yelling. Not at her but yelling nonetheless.

"YOU DIMWITTED FREAKS, CAN'T YOU JUST DO ONE THING RIGHT? JUST ONCE DAMN IT!" And our world champion in shouting curses down the phone glared at the screen in front of him.

Silently Serenity stepped inside and sat down. Resting her chin on her palm, propped on one elbow, she tried to ignore his behavior and waited for Kaiba to finish.

"Yes, tomorrow's your last chance and don't you dare screwing it once again and you're…" Dramatic pause. "FIREEEEED!"

Last shout.

SLAM!

The phone was in place again and Seto glared at everything and nothing particular all the same. Sure, he knew the little Wheeler was here already but hell, he couldn't care less! He was boiling inside and tried to calm down, really, he tried but good thing takes time.

That's when the phone started ringing again.

_ARG!_

"YES!" A threatening hiss and the world froze, not only the girl waiting for the cold, dangerous and really pissed CEO. "…mh… Mokuba, no… NO!… I told you I won't go to any convention in the world… I… what… your what… I know about your birthday… no… no… no… That's my last word… yes."

He sounded like a very irritated CEO right now but Serenity actually smirked, thinking that if one would put music under his voice, that Seto Kaiba could do a rap. Ha-Ha. Funny.

SLAM.

_Eep._

Oh yes, now he was glaring at her, the poor funny bunny. Why? She had no idea; neither had he but he didn't care at all. With big strides he got closer to her and slightly, just a bit, she got scared. Could he read minds? Who knew after all? Wide-eyed she stared back at him as he came nearer and nearer and finally… sat down next to her. He crossed his arms, sulking!

The baby was moody, the hell was he moody, not only moody, but in bad mood! Pissed so to say. With his blue eyes narrowed he stared at her and slowly, like slow motion, his left eyebrow rose and Serenity almost expected a laser coming from out of his eye any time, stabbing her almost to death. But only almost and then she would lie on his damn expensive carpet, blood rinsing from out of her and in a quivering and very low voice she would ask him, why.

"_Because I'm twenty-three and can't get a woman!" _

Ha-Ha. Suppress the snicker, girl and watch your mind!

"WHAT?" Low. Disgusted. Pissed. That described his voice right now when he was snarling his question at her.

Reality bit her little ass and Serenity gazed at him, startled. "Nothing."

"Good."

"Are you sure you want your lesson today?" Maybe she could go back home to the safety haven of her bed, covers over her head, almost vanishing from this earth.

"Course I want." He stated. "Are you prepared?"

_For what? Armageddon?_

Serenity raised her eyebrows. "Actually quite well. We can start immediately. I've thought about this whole chatting-up-situation and well, I think the most important thing, before you go ahead at all, is to have self-confidence."

"I _do_ have a lot of that." _Hello_? He was Seto Kaiba! If _anyone_ than _he_ was having self-confidence… or hadn't he? Maybe a few tiny, tiny doubts were there when it came to women, but only in that case.

"You do, indeed. But let's just go through a little check-list I've made." Pulling a small hand-written paper from out of her pocket she unfolded it and read out loud. "Stand straight."

"Excuse me?"

"Stand straight."

"I've heard you. What's that supposed to mean?"

The two hazel eyes of Serenity rolled themselves annoyed. Input. Output. Gladly Kaiba wasn't a computer, otherwise his CPU would be overloaded!

"That means, situation: You want to go and talk to a girl, then STAND STRAIGHT!"

"I ALWAYS DO!" He growled back at her and flashed his teeth. One would think he had spent too much time with his Blue-Eyes. Did he think he was a dragon?

"Not difficult with that stick up your butt…" She muttered but continued. "Step two: smile."

A nod closed that topic on Kaiba's part. Gladly because Serenity wasn't in the mood for another horror show.

"Point three: Try to meet her eyes." Looking up from the paper she met _his_ eyes. "Don't stare! Just try to look at her! Friendly, Kaiba!"

"Whatever. Go on."

"Bend slowly forward." She read and this time, he was looking as if she was insane.

"Why?" He wasn't so sure after all what Serenity was plotting. There were a lot of possibilities as to why someone should bend forward.

Let's take a look at Kaiba's mental list of 'why asking people to bend forward':

1. To give them a good punch in the face.  
2. To slap their face.  
3. To kick them, wherever, the place didn't matter in that case.  
4. To stick them two fingers in the eyes.  
5. Or to kiss them.

_Wheeler, Wheeler, what's on your mind?  
__Tell me, tell me, if you're one of that kind.  
__Wheeler, Wheeler, in case I do miss,  
__Tell me, tell me, do **you** want to kiss?_

And _yes_, I guess, he could rap if he actually wanted!

"Because Kaiba, if you bend forward whilst talking to someone, you seem interested and paying attention to them." So simple and yet, Serenity had to explain to him!

"Oh."

_Yeah, oh. I've got nothing more to add to that. _

"And last but not least, you've got to have a firm handshake."

Kaiba smirked. "Wanna try?"

"No, thank you. I still need my limbs unbroken. So do the girls you're after!" She blew one of her auburn strands of hair out of her face. Strange, they were falling out of place whenever she got annoyed.

"You know what, Wheeler? After all you don't even seem bad as a flirting teacher." The whole situation had two good points for Seto. One, that he learnt a lot about girls and flirting. Two, that the freaky Wheeler's demon-sister was kind of amusing and even kind of smart.

Kaiba only could stand smart people and considering, that the amount of the small hazel-eyed girl's intelligence might be – after some exact calculations of the CEO's super-brain – almost as much as about fifty percent of Seto's grade of intelligence, well maybe forty percent, okay thirty… Fact was, she was kind of smart, sharp-witted and even intellectual. That meant, after some close inspection from the author, that Seto Kaiba could stand Serenity Wheeler.

And so it came to the compliment mentioned above. Nothing more; nothing less.

But the auburn-haired smiled wryly. "Thanks."

"Welcome, Wheeler." Okay, so that sounded odd. Welcome in connection with Wheeler. He should have used Serenity. But calling someone like her by her first name was odd as well – to Kaiba it was.

"Hey, I found this little magazine's article and I think we might take a look at it as well." She pulled a ripped out magazine's page from out of her purse and read out loud. _"Are you ready for a date? Take a look at the list below to check if you're ready for a rendezvous."_

Kaiba leant forward to take a glimpse at Serenity's magazine page but she glared at him with the 'I'm the teacher glare' as he did so. He groaned and leant back, crossing his arms.

"Well Kaiba," And Ms. Wheeler read. "_You're ready if…_

_You've got an own apartment and earn your own money."_

Seto slowly turned his head to gaze boringly at the hazel-eyed woman next to him. A lazy, lopsided smirk was playing on his lips. Oh, it was the smart-ass-grin but one Serenity had never seen so far and well, mentally, she admitted that it looked _kind of_ cute.

"Fine." She grinned and winked. "I guess a mansion and an own company does count as well."

"You bet!" Modesty wasn't the brunette's strength; that was well-known.

"Let's see what's next. _You're ready if…_

_You've got an adequate good functioned relationship to your parents."_

**Oh hell, hell, hell!** Why did she have to mention this? She knew, and that was rare, that Kaiba and his younger brother got adopted after his real parents died but not just from any random family, no, but from Gozaburo Kaiba, who did that only to his advantage! She knew about Noa and she knew how Kaiba got treated from the cruel man Gozaburo Kaiba must have been! Bad, bad, bad. Biting her lower lip she carefully took a glimpse at the young man next to her.

Kaiba just looked at her with raised eyebrows. "To my real parents I did. Does that count?"

The girl couldn't help smiling. "I guess. Well, I'm the teacher after all and in my class it does."

The usually bitter Seto Kaiba wasn't bitter! Yay! That was good, wasn't it? Serenity would have expected him to at least glare at her but why actually? She hadn't done anything to him. She was only helping. So, there was this human being, namely Seto Kaiba, who was actually a human being and well, he must have had parents before and maybe, just maybe he and his parents had been happy! _Sweet Seto, very sweet._

"I'm going to continue. _You're ready if…_

_You've got friends for your free-time-activities."_

Kaiba thought about that. Friends? Well, he had none really. He wouldn't dare calling the girl next to him a friend; she was his teacher. Other candidates? Forget them!

"Screw that." Serenity huffed, knowing about the friendless situation of Kaiba's life. "Or am I wrong?"

The brunette simply glared at her. How dare she voicing out the obvious? She can't do this even if it was true. Damn her.

"I guess I'm right but, you know Kaiba, if this works out maybe you'll find some friends as well."

"I don't need any friends. What I need is a woman. Clear?" He shot back, much too quick and therefore, desperate sounding.

"Ooh, quite desperate, I see." She teased him and grinned. "That poor thing whoever gets stick with you." She mused much to Seto's disapproval.

"So you really think, huh?" There were the slits again where once have been clear blue eyes. The boiling point was almost approached inside of him. "You've got no clue about my actual treats, girl. Maybe I've much more to give than YOU…" He stuck a hard, long finger at her chest. Ow. "…could ever imagine!"

Sulking he leant back while the girl was rubbing the place on her chest where he had poked her. That had hurt after all. _Run, people, run! That man can stab you just with one finger! _She scoffed. He was a liar, wasn't he? What was there _he_ of all people could have to give apart from all his money and good looks?

No time to work this out, Serenity decided to go on with the lesson. _"_Can we go on now?" As she got no reply she just sighed and continued. "_You're ready if… _

_You know how to make yourself happy."_

Double meaning or not? That was the question! Probably not, so Kaiba just shrugged. "Yes."

But the same question went around in circles in Serenity's young mind. But she decided against further pushing and with quite skeptically raised eyebrows she went back to her task.

"_You're ready if…_

_You're really looking for excitement, trouble, fun, sorrow and uncertainty in your life."_

"Trouble? Sorrow? Uncertainty? I can't use this for God's sake!" He exclaimed all of a sudden almost freaking. Help! Help! There was no place for such in his perfect life!

"But that belongs to a relationship and all above love!" She countered. She had expected this! He had no clue about what love really meant. It was so joyful but also complicated.

"Why?" He couldn't understand this. A woman should make him happy and not bring any trouble, sorrow or uncertainty.

"Because if you care for someone so much that you love them, you will have fun and joy but it goes also with trouble because you can't expect everyone to think as you think. And it means sorrow because you can never be sure they will always be at your side. That also means uncertainty. People are individuals in this world and to stay together means fighting but it will also make your life complete." So she sounded like one from the 'Moulin Rouge' movie but that didn't matter to her at that moment. And she damn believed in truth, beauty and love! She just wasn't called Christian and Kaiba was definitely not a Satine!

_Imagine Kaiba sitting on that swing, "Come and get me girls!" _

_Bellyache alert from laughing!_

But Satine… sorry, Kaiba gazed at her silently. His brain tried to work out what she had just said but there was clearly an overload-alert. Her points sounded convincing but also very confusing. If only life could be just a bit more easy. _Please let understanding rain down from the sky!_

His silent prayers, of course, were unheard. "How do you know all this, Serenity, if you've never got a boyfriend in your life?"

_Duh!_ He had called her Serenity! RESPECT to her! He respected her! And damn, right now he was not only respecting her but also admiring her because of her knowledge in the things Kaiba had no clue about. Love, to put it in one word.

"Well, somehow every relationship in which love matters is like that. Not just a partner, but also with friends or family. Actually all the people you care about." Somehow, Serenity had the feeling he couldn't see her point. "You love Mokuba, right?"

Kaiba furrowed his brows and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Yes. So?"

"Never had trouble with him? Did you never worry about him? Are you sure that he will be always here to stay with you? Aren't you afraid of losing him one day, maybe? Are you never fighting? Does he never annoy you?" With her eyebrows raised she waited for a reply.

But Kaiba kept being silent.

"I'm sure it happens once in a while but you love him though and he makes you happy, doesn't he? And with 'the love of your life' it will be the same, don't you think?"

Seto sank his head, gazing at the carpet. She was right. The stupid Wheeler was having more experience in life than he thought. Thing was he needed a lot more thinking, urgently. Still a doubt played in his mind if she really, actually was telling the truth. But not now!

Leaning back against the sofa he sighed and wiped his hands across his face, then gazed at the girl with the amazingly big hazel eyes. "Maybe."

A huge amount of input for the CEO's brain to gather and work out. Even Serenity had some sympathy for 'the devil' and so she smiled. "Confusing?"

"Quite." He replied, staring ahead of him.

"Hey, I think you need some distraction from all this hardcore-thinking."

"And what are you suggesting to do?" He crossed his arms, waiting for her reply.

"Let's go out." Serenity couldn't help her rising grin. "It's Saturday evening!"

"I don't know, Wheeler. _You_ and me, going out?" Switching back to the loyal Wheeler-despising, arrogant jerk-mode, Kaiba didn't trust the small girl next to him.

"Yeah, an excursion. I'm still tutoring you, remember? And your teacher says that the lessons are going to be continued somewhere else." Serenity had a wicked grin playing on her pink lips and jumped up, ready to leave that boring mansion of her one and only student. "Get up, Kaiba. We're going."

The young CEO's brain calculated. Lesson. Going Out. Excursion. An idea popped into his mind.

"Maybe I should use this opportunity to check out what I've leant so far."

"Do you really think you're ready for this?" The girl had her doubts.

"We'll see." Kaiba said much more enthusiastic than he actually had wanted and jumped off the sofa. "I'm going to change. Give me a minute."

And left was Ms. Wheeler who waited for the brunette to come back. _God, he was vain!_ Who had thought that? Who would have known? Serenity shuffled with her feet whilst waiting. Two minutes passed by quickly and almost ten minutes were needed by her student until finally, he came back and grabbed his jacket.

_Ooh, he was fine! Yes, he was. _Serenity was slightly gaping at the tall guy. He wore all black, except for the red tie and he smelled of expensive eau de cologne. _Jesus, shoot her, but that guy was hot!_ If she wouldn't know him, well, maybe, she would actually try to impress him and hope he'd talk to her.

But dreams are dreams and the man within that designer's suit was everything but what she wanted, or needed. Though, thinking about it, the whole teacher-student-situation was annoying but also fun! Fun was always needed… _MENTAL SLAP FOR WHEELER!_ _Call an ambulance! That one's insane and needs a therapist!_

"Are you finished with staring at the sky, Wheeler?" His voice interrupted her thoughts sharply and she focused her eyes on the man in _that_ car.

Oh nice, he would drive. _How noble of him!_ Serenity was a lucky one. Not because he simply would drive her but mainly, all above anything else, in _that_ car! **_ROAR_**! Since when did he own a silver Corvette? **_VROOM_**! **_VROOM_**! The girl drooled over the car, but Kaiba rolled his eyes at her.

"Don't get the leather seats dirty."

Approaching inside of the club Serenity had chosen, they stood. And stood. Kaiba had crossed his arms and with raised eyebrows watched potential victims. Serenity tried to look for anyone known but unfortunately she didn't spot anyone. So they stood. And stood.

"Well? Have you found someone as a test object, Kaiba?" Serenity asked slightly bored.

"What about that brunette over there? The one with the red top. She's hot." He smirked, but mostly to himself.

"Yeah, hot." The auburn-haired replied monotonous. "If you're going for prostitutes."

"What? Do you think she's---"

"NO! No. I mean that she's one of the kind who takes everyone she gets her claws on. Look at her, that top looks so cheap! Jesus, I can see her nipples!" The girl almost freaked.

"Yeah, me too." Kaiba, instead, had a wicked smirk upon his lips.

Serenity elbowed him hard in his ribs! **_OW! Fuck! What the hell?_**

Kaiba glared down at his teacher. "Who are _you_ suggesting then?"

"She's looking nice." Seto's small teacher pointed to a blonde in a black dress. "She's dressed fine, the black dress shows off a bit of wealth. She smiles friendly and out-going but looks also kind of shy. That's a candidate for you, Kaiba. She's practically waiting for you, Prince Charming!"

The 'Prince Charming' thing was a bit too much for his liking but the rest of her speech sounded acceptable. Wheeler had a point. Looking at the blonde she really was someone to be with; not a prostitute. She was definitely worth a try and with that thought in his mind, the good-looking CEO left his flirting teacher to herself.

Serenity sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. From here she could watch her student and how he became rejected. Not that she wanted him to become but, look, you have to admit, well, to 99 percent you could be sure that he became rejected anyway. And if that isn't worth seeing, what else? Serenity snickered silently to herself and drank from her Jacky Cola.

Back with Kaiba. He stopped in front of the blonde and gazed at her. She was really beautiful; no joke this time. "Hi."

The woman turned to look at him and his definitely attractive appearance. "Oh, hi."

Her voice had a nice tone, Kaiba admitted mentally. "I've seen you and… I just needed to talk to you. You've got such a really beautiful smile."

"Thank you." She timidly smiled.

"Welcome." No smile but what do you expect? He's still Kaiba! "What's you name? My name's Seto." He offered her his hand to shake.

"Clara." She replied. "Nice to meet you Seto."

_So far. So good. Wasn't he just doing fine? I do think so. But what was Professor Wheeler thinking?_

Serenity gawked in awe. Five minutes and thirty-two seconds had passed and the woman still hadn't sent Kaiba away already. Unbelievably. Mentally she clapped her own shoulder, proud, she had taught him that well. Though she couldn't hear what Kaiba and the blonde were saying, she read their body language. The blonde smiled. Kaiba told something which made her laugh. The blonde told him something which made him smile!

Alert! **ALERT**! _Alert_! He smiled. He damn smiled. He damn smiled for that blonde! He damn smiled for that damn blonde! Now, it was getting way too much exciting! How---? How the hell---? How the hell was this possible? Wasn't it creepy for the blonde that he had smiled? Had he smiled kind of different for that blonde? Why hadn't he smiled for Serenity that way?

The girl ordered another drink whilst watching the scene from far away.

Let's hear a snippet of what Serenity couldn't hear?

Clara chuckled at the brunette and his try to chat her up. "You're really something else, Seto."

"What do you mean?" Was that good or bad? Kaiba had no idea.

"You're funny and well, quite attractive I might add." She flirted with him!

_HALLELUJAH! **HALLELUJAH**! The gospel choir rose from out of nowhere, clapping their hands and singing in the background!_

"Thank you. You don't look bad yourself." No joke, but to his fortune, she thought it was funny.

_Thank God for people who liked dark humor and sarcasm! Some of them thought they were even humorous, funny, hilarious even. Gladly, Clara was one of them._

"But, won't your girlfriend be mad if you're flirting with me so openly?" She asked grinning.

"I have no girlfriend." Too true.

"No? What about the girl over there at the bar?" Clara darted her gaze at Serenity.

"Wheeler." Seto muttered under his breath in his usual despising voice. "She's definitely _not_ my girlfriend! What makes you think that?"

"Not? Oh, well, she's watching us all the time."

Seto glared at Serenity.

**_Oops_**! Serenity was caught. Kaiba's glare told it all. _Damn_. Whatever, she grabbed her drink and walked over to a small table in the corner. Sitting down she wondered where all her friends were. Usually, on a Saturday evening they all went out to go here but where were they when you needed them? _The answer's blowing in the wind…_

"She's gone." Clara declared meanwhile to Kaiba.

"Gladly. She's just a friend of mine. Well, not really a friend. She's…" What the hell was she? He couldn't possibly tell that she was tutoring him in the techniques of flirting! What else could she be describes as? "She's my European au-pair maid. She doesn't know anyone around and only speaks very few our language."

_OH, THIS WAS GOOD! HA-HA._

"Oh." That was a reason, even to the blonde woman. "Well, Seto, do you want to dance?"

Our poor small teacher, called by the name of Serenity Wheeler, was meanwhile quite bored. She hated Kaiba for _not_ becoming rejected! _If_ he really found a woman, maybe even a real girlfriend, then her job was past! After only three days. Six hours. A pity. Damn that blonde and her weird liking for weird people as Seto Kaiba.

Serenity took a sip of her third Jacky Cola. Not even that she lost her one and only ever student to a blonde in a dark expensive dress, but no, none of her so called friends were showing up to entertain her! And damn, she was used to become entertained! Where was Duke when he should compliment her about little nothings? Where was Tristan to send around getting drinks. Where were her brother and his damn girlfriend? _Again at it, huh, Joseph?_

Drowning in self-pity, suddenly, she spotted him. _Seto Kaiba_. What was he doing back here? A smile rose on her lips when he came closer and slumped down next to her, looking kind of disappointed.

"What happened?" Desperately she needed to know. _Finally news!_

"You want to know, huh?" He asked and the wild, continuous nodding he received made him chuckle even. "I can't dance, Wheeler."

"You can't dance?" That was it? No insulting scene from the blonde? He simply couldn't dance?

"Told you so. She wanted to dance and I can't dance. Then we continued to talk until someone else asked her for a dance. She couldn't resist, I suppose. I've been so close and yet, it wasn't enough." He shrugged as if he didn't care.

"Oh, that's a pity…" Okay, so she was acting on her part but hell, as if he would care when she became rejected. _Hey, wait a second_. She never became rejected! _Pooh_… "If you want to, I could even teach you how to dance."

Serenity was such a kind-hearted girl. Plus, she was having already a bit alcohol in her blood and what the CEO didn't know, was, that she usually didn't drink at all. _Congrats_!

"Only if it's included in the flirting lessons. Otherwise, I'm going to pass." He dully said.

"All inclusive, Kaiba. For you." She poked him and grinned. "Let's get us drinks."

It had been Serenity who had to get them drinks. Did you think otherwise? Certainly not. But as she was slightly warmed up anyway, she didn't mind – as long as he paid. And he did pay! So, Serenity wasn't stupid, and ordered four glasses of Jacky Cola. Two for her; two for Kaiba. But as he had to drive still, she calculated rather slowly, three for herself and one for Kaiba.

They had been sitting around for nearly an hour now, but the silence was slowly Serenity eating up. Kaiba wasn't really into talking and so she mused again about her own friendless situation. The only one she had was a non-speaking, into nothing glaring, sulking and grumpy CEO, who was looking really hot but was the biggest jerk someone had ever seen!

_WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T ANYBODY CHAT **HER** UP? _She was a nice, beautiful, sociable girl with good manners and_… sigh… _She was a depressed drunk.

"How was you date going last night?" All of a sudden the man talked to her but his question made her cringe immediately.

"It WASN'T a DATE, Kaiba! GRRR!" She growled back at him.

"You were with Tristan. When two people go out, then it's date" He simply shrugged.

_Was he bored and wanted to annoy her? Was he really interested if she had a date? Why the sudden urge to know? What was going on in Kaiba? Well, I won't tell you right now._

"It wasn't a date because we weren't two people." She smirked. "Apart from me, there were also Joey and Mai."

"Oh, two pairs then; doesn't really change the situation. A two in one date I'd say!" Kaiba had his fun. Yes, he damn well knew how to make himself happy!

"It wasn't a date! I don't want Tristan! He's just a friend. Don't you get it?" She blurted, gesturing with her hands.

"Whatever." Seto stood up and gazed down at the small, pathetic, drunken girl. "We're leaving, Wheeler. Let's go."

Luck hadn't left Serenity, she mused, when she sat in the passenger's seat of that silver car again. But something wasn't right; something was wrong, very wrong. There was this nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach. _What could it possibly be?_ She couldn't think straight with Kaiba having the steering wheel in his crazy hands.

"Could you please… drive slower… I think I'm going to…" That's when the girl clutched her hand across her mouth.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" That's what the owner of the nice silver car yelled back.

"Don't threaten me! Otherwise I puke on purpose!" She shrieked back at him.

"You'll do that once and I'm making sure your mouth's going to be stuffed forever!" He growled with one of that earth trembling glares of his blue eyes. _That was mean!_

Serenity drew in a breath, ready to hiss her anger out at him, but stopped and sighed. It would be senseless. She was depressed enough. Plus, they had arrived the apartment building she was living in. Out of the car's window she looked up at the apartment where her room was. _Alone she would be there… sigh. _

Suddenly her door opened itself. _Oh, wait!_ It was Kaiba. "Get out, Wheeler."

"Okay, okay, I'm already out. See?" She stumbled out of the car, almost hitting the street but gladly something pulled her up by her elbow. Kaiba. Again. He simply groaned annoyed and helped the girl climbing the stairs that led inside.

"You know, Kaiba, I'm kinda like you." She slurred. "Just different."

"I see." He grabbed her upper arms before she fell across the last step of the staircase.

"No, I mean it. We both don't get a girlfriend… a boyfriend I mean… girlfriend… boyfriend… for you a girlfriend and for me a boyfriend." She stopped in front of her door and looked inside of her purse, searching for her keys. "Thing is just… that no one likes you because you're a jerk! Apart from that you are some really good-looking, hot and sexy guy with really adorable blue eyes!" And she poked his stomach with a grin.

Kaiba glared down at her. _Good-looking? Hot? Sexy?_ **Alert!** _A jerk? He? Stupid drunken Wheeler! Get it over with!_ He snatched the keys from her hands and opened the door, leading them both inside.

"I am totally different from you, Kaiba!" Serenity exclaimed and waved her hands in the air, shrugging off her jacket whilst doing so. "Everyone likes me because they think I am really nice, kind-hearted and innocent but do they really want to be with me? No! They don't want me! Do you wanna know why, Kaiba?"

"Not really." Nonchalantly he answered but his guess was right as Serenity didn't care at all.

"I'm gonna tell you though! Because one, I'm too small! See?" She stood in front of him, showing their quite huge height difference.

"You can always hit on Yugi." Kaiba smirked, cruelly.

"HE'S WITH TEA!" Serenity roared. "Anyway, back to me! Second, I have red hair! Who likes red hair? Huh?"

"Uh… Amelda?" Just a guess but what did she want at all? Seto would rather like to write a check, making her see a doctor than to listen to what she was whining about.

"Who's that…?" Serenity scratched her head. She didn't know any Amelda. Wasn't that the guy who… anyway, she had never seen him in person. "Have you got his number? Then again, never mind. He wouldn't want me anyway. I don't have, well, much… equipment."

"You don't have what?" Kaiba's eyebrow rose in curiosity. What kind of equipment was she talking about?

Our drunken girl simply rolled her eyes at the thick-headed millionaire. Then she grabbed for his hands and put them- without a second thought- to what she called her equipment- to what we know as chest – to what Seto Kaiba called very well-shaped, though small, breasts! His eyes darted to his hands, which were still in place at the girl's chest with her own hands on top.

"See? Too small. Don't you think, Kaiba?"

**_Ring! Ring!_** His name was like the alarm bell and he pulled his hands away, quickly, sharply, fast like Pegasus' funny bunny! **Whoa--- fuck!** Quick as lightning he turned to walk past the girl in the direction of the kitchen. Not that he wanted to go there but his navigation system was slightly broken down – an alert because of a system overload was not something to make fun about – otherwise I'd tell you that he was lucky not to go up the wall in his current state! _What was his current state?_ Well, you won't believe me, but our favorite CEO, the supposedly cold-hearted, emotionless and evil one – yeah, Kaiba – was blushing in the nicest, dark red color you're ever seen! _First time, first love… (You hear the voice of Robin Beck in the background!)_

**_SHUT UP ROBIN!_** That's what Seto was thinking! **_SHUT THE FUCK UP! _**He wasn't in love but blushing, just blushing; **_okaaayyy?_** What the hell was that Wheeler-witchy-bitchy girl thinking?

"Oh my, oh my…" Serenity mumbled and gazed at the empty space where Kaiba had been a second ago. _What's the big deal?_ She turned to see him with his back at her and shrugged, making her way to her room in order to change her t-shirt. "If you really had never a girlfriend, did you ever… I mean… have you ever… did you ever sleep with one?"

**_AAARRR! _**Serenity's high pitched voice made the brunette panicking. He gazed left. He gazed right. Back left. Right. Left. Right. Left… **What?**_ Hello? **ALERT!**_

"I mean, I've never slept with a guy." Her monotonous voice reached his ears from her bedroom.

_WHAT WAS THAT?_ **_Where was the mutt when you needed him?_** He should keep his sister off blue-eyed millionaires! **Help! Help!** But--- Did she really--- Hey, maybe--- then again--- the best was--- no--- no way could Seto do that--- not with--- uh uh--- he may escape! **_That's it!_**

"Hey, Kaiba, you non-speaking ox! Why don't you answer me?" Serenity's head peeked around the door frame of her room. "Suddenly shy, Kaiba?" He was nowhere to be seen. "KAIBA?"

Walking into the living room, she found it empty, as well as the kitchen, the bathroom, Joey's room, the corridor and the wardrobes. Left was the apartment door slightly ajar… Gazing out of the window Serenity saw a silver Corvette speeding off.

"Holy mother, such a chicken… I was just being curious." She muttered before she collapsed onto the sofa, softly snoring the melody of 'First Time'…

-

End of chapter four.


	5. Day Four

_Thank you for your kind words so far, I'm so happy! Sorry that it has taken me one whole week again to update – the dark side of the force was with me ;D _

_I'll try to update weekly in the future seeing as I won't be much quicker anyway._

-

**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

-

Chapter Five

-

"**Day Four"**

-

The latest events were lingering in his mind when Seto was standing on the balcony at the side of his living room. He had thought about what had happened last night but couldn't put his finger on what had been going on in the girl's mind exactly last night. _Serenity Wheeler_. Was she even more desperate to have a boyfriend than he was to have a girlfriend? Was she even the kind of girl who wanted to have a boyfriend? Hell, _to him_, it had sounded as if she wanted to just get him to lay her.

_**Why? **_

Seto turned to look inside the room before he lit the cigarette in his hand, inhaling sharply.

7:53 pm

Would his teacher even show up this evening? Maybe she would chicken out. If not, then he had to do a talk with her. **_Urg_**! _Awful_. He hated this. What if she even wanted more than what he thought she had wanted? What if what he thought was wrong and she thought he was thinking the same? What was he thinking at all? What was that red-headed Wheeler thinking? **Hell**. _Confusing, very confusing!_

Kaiba gazed down into his backyard to his gardener taking care of some bushes. She bowed to him seeing her boss and he gave a curt nod, hiding the cigarette behind his back. She mustn't tell Mokuba about his occasional smoking habit. Seto made sure he was out of sight, leaning against the door, and yet took another deep breath of smoke into his lungs. _Jesus, was that good!_

7:55 pm

What if the Wheeler-chick was in love with him? It didn't seem_ as if_ but it would be better than having a Wheeler chasing him to bed. Not that he really minded to give her what she wanted but the way was wrong and if _anyone_, then Seto knew _how_ wrong. Growing was a process in body and mind; yet your body might be grown out but your mind wasn't. Serenity, the small vixen she might turn into, wasn't half as grown as she was looking like. A naïve child combined with a tough little witch.

**No**. Kaiba needed to learn something from Wheeler and nothing else! Teacher-student. Student-teacher. However ridiculous it was, it was their whole deal even interacting with each other. How stupid was she to question him about his private life at all? Damn, twisted pants felt better than his love life at the moment but she was here to teach him, not to change the fact herself. _If only_… A girlfriend, that's what he needed. Not a bed-stalking Wheeler…

Inhaling the smoke of his cigarette once again he snickered at the thought of Serenity's condition last night. Absolutely unacceptable but yet, her shape weren't the worst to touch. One corner of his mouth twitched to turn into a lopsided smirk; he narrowed his eyes and gazed at the inside of his hands. Oh, he could still feel her… the shirt she was wearing was rather thin and well, the bra too.

Heat rose to his cheeks.

"SETO!"

_**Fuck! What? Where? Huh? Damn! Grrr!**_

Mokuba's yell snapped the brunette into reality and made him throw the remains of his cigarette down the balcony into the backyard, receiving a glare from his gardener, which he missed as he turned to gaze sheepishly around the door frame. The gardener shook her head at her boss. _What an impolite and immature behavior! _

Inside the living room stood Mokuba with Serenity, talking casually until they noticed Kaiba's brown-haired head peeking 'round the doorframe.

"What're you doing out there, Seto?" Mokuba asked and Seto stepped inside, finally.

"Nothing." The blue-eyed man blinked, flashing a fake smile at his younger brother.

"Have you been smoking, again?" The younger Kaiba's eyes narrowed as he inspected his brother, sniffing around like a dog. Seto was freaking inside already. _AGAIN! _How did Mokuba know at all?

"No." Seto lied, stubbornly. "I don't smoke."

"I've seen the pack of Marlboro between your boxers, don't deny it." The raven-haired teen scolded.

Kaiba's eyes widened; then narrowed. "What have you been searching between _my… _um, things, anyway?"

"I wanted to borrow the pair of boxers with the little pink elephant to show someone, you know. She thought of them as being _sooo_ _damn_ _cute_!" Mokuba smiled dreamily.

Kaiba, instead, turned pink; smoke sprayed from out of his ears. Any guesses? Yes, he was angry, a bit maybe. "I don't appreciate you wearing my things to show off in public; especially not my underwear! I don't even appreciate you wearing just boxers to show off at anyone! What were you doing at all there? How old are you? Be sure to stay at home for the next two weeks!"

Mokuba shoved out his bottom lip, made puppy eyes and looked at his older brother. "Seto…" He almost whimpered.

The soft snicker of Serenity broke their brotherly argument and both of them looked at her. Kaiba rolled his eyes in annoyance at the wide grin of his brother. Feeling his older brother's glare the youngster pouted again but to no avail when Seto's glare didn't falter on him.

"He-he… I think I'm going to leave you two… to it… whatever it is… what you are doing… not that it's my business… right big brother? I know, I know… well… don't do anything I wouldn't!" With that Mokuba slammed the door shut, leaving Seto to Serenity, or Serenity to Seto. You could see both ways around.

Serenity snickered with her hand over her mouth. "I guess if I'm ever going to be pregnant, you've got to teach me parenting, Kaiba!"

**_ALERT! _**WAIT! _HOLD ON! HOLD ON!_ First, it was only a blunt try to make him sleep with her, now she already wanted to have his babies? _CALM DOWN, SETO, CALM DOWN._ He mentally chanted.

"Um… Serenity," He swallowed the lump in his throat, "Take a seat please."

The girl gazed at him dumbfounded. "Are you feeling okay, Kaiba? You are so… nice." Carefully she sat down, doubting her own senses and ability of anything suddenly.

"Yes, I'm fine." He replied and paced the room. "We just need to talk."

"Well, is something wrong?" She asked, crossing her arms and legs. _What did 'psycho cutie' want?_

"There's no way of saying this nice and gentle, so I'm going to say it right into your face." He ran a hand through his hazelnut colored hair and took a deep breath. "Serenity, I can't sleep with you!"

"Wha---?" Her jaw dropped. She couldn't think, couldn't move, nor speak. Any word failed to form.

Kaiba understood this as disappointment. He held up his hand. "Not that I wouldn't do that but I simply can't do this because it would be wrong. Your first time should be with someone you know quite a time and we weren't even dating, so I'm sorry, but I've got to say no."

Serenity suddenly hid her face in her hands. Her shoulders started to shake, as well as her auburn-haired head. Was she crying? _Oh what a baby!_ Kaiba mentally cursed himself though. HE HAD MADE HER CRY… wait. No, she… was… _damn the bitch_… was laughing! Bursting out, the small Wheeler threw her hands in the air, laughed even harder, then curled slightly on the sofa and held her already aching stomach.

Kaiba glared daggers at her! _How dare she laugh at him?_ He was just being nice and she was, well mean – no, correction. She was **_cruel_**. That was the word.

"What are you laughing so stupidly?" He yelled at her and finally, made her stop.

"You thought that…" She giggled, "That me and you…" She snickered, "I wanted you to sleep with me!" She burst out laughing again but stopped soon after, asking through her giggles, "How did you come up with this? Have you taken a too hot bath?"

"YOU DAMN WELL KNOW HOW I COME UP WITH THIS!" He fumed.

"No, honestly. This is so ridiculous. Tell me how you've got that idea?" She never stopped laughing really, tears building in her hazel eyes.

"YOU MADE ME TOUCH YOUR BREASTS, FUCK IT!" And he plopped down in an armchair, crossing his arms, piercing glare in place, usual attitude… though, no, it was worse… he smirked.

"…" Right. She remembered. "Um…"

"Out of words, Wheeler?" He felt superior to her.

"Oh man, Kaiba, you are _sooo_ uptight sometimes!" She exclaimed and casually leant back, acting, yes, but not visibly to Seto Kaiba. "Look, I have been slightly drunk and yeah, I gave you the chance to criticize my shape but that's it. I didn't intend to seduce you. What made you think that?"

Two eyes simply gazed at her chest.

She groaned loudly. "Okay, so you touched my breasts! Now, will you forever and always stare at them?"

"Not a very pleasant idea." He smirked. Looking was boring. Touching felt good. Yep.

"Then get yourself a grip, Kaiba, we've got some work together. Remember? Any ringing in the brain?" Annoyed, she rolled her eyes. In truth, she was glad she had acted so cool. This was _sooo_ embarrassing! She had made him _touch_ her! She remembered! She mentally slapped her head! How stupid was that!

On the other hand it had made him fall into conclusions, which was quite funny in the end.

Ha-ha.

Wait a second.

He had _DENIED_ her.

"Fine. This lesson better be good." Kaiba muttered as he gathered his thoughts in order to learn.

"Why wouldn't you want to sleep with me?"

_SCREECH_! **"What?"** Too confusing for a simple brain belonging to the man named Seto Kaiba. _Input-output. _"I thought you didn't want me to."

"I still don't want you to but," She took a breath, "_if_ I wanted, why wouldn't you want me?"

"I've already told you and I don't intend to repeat myself. Now, can we skip this and go on with the lesson? I don't have all day and we're wasting precious time." He stated in his business voice.

Serenity tried to remember what he had said exactly why he wouldn't want to sleep with her. Unfortunately she couldn't remember, how hard she tried, it wouldn't come back. And she, to her misfortune, can't scroll back to read the stated above, like we can.

_Reminder_

"_Not that I wouldn't do that but I simply can't do this because it would be wrong. Your first time should be with someone you know quite a time and we weren't even dating, so I'm sorry, but I've got to say no."_

Honorable, isn't it?

Too bad Serenity had no reminder and was clueless as she couldn't remember what he had said. She mentally shrugged, deciding not to care and not to ask again. She would not make herself a fool. That was final. If he wouldn't repeat, fine. _Asshole!_

The girl let a groan leave her mouth. "Where do you think you want to continue? With the usual flirting lesson or with the offered dancing course?"

"You're serious about the dancing thing, aren't you?" He scowled at her, though, not disappointed.

"Well, the offer is still on. It's up to you." She shrugged.

"I accept your offer. I guess I really need to do that in order to be prepared correctly." Sometimes he sounded like a computer, calculating on how to get settled with a woman. Too sad. Finding a girlfriend should be fun, after all. Serenity meekly smiled at him.

"Then we start with the dancing course. It should loosen up the atmosphere as well." Fishing within her purse, she pulled out a CD. "Do you have a CD-Player anywhere near?"

Serenity gazed around the room and soon spotted a stereo, right above the huge flat screen TV. Kaiba wordlessly took the remote and switched on the Player, enabling the surround system of the living room. The CD went into the player and the small build girl went to stand in the middle of the room where a supposedly good dancing floor was. The CEO followed her quite slowly. He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of the stomach.

"Shouldn't we _put **on**_ the music?" He asked, hands on his hips, lips pursed.

"No," She simply replied, "First I need to show you some basics. Come here."

The young millionaire obeyed as she grabbed one of his large hands with her small right one.

"You're going to have to lead. That's why you should take a girl's hand in your left one. Put your right hand on my hip." She instructed.

Hesitating for a moment, he again felt this uneasiness. It felt stupid to play this role. The whole student-role felt stupid. But it was necessary and Kaiba wasn't one to give up. He put the hand on her hip and gazed down at her. A smirk suddenly spread on his face.

Serenity looked up at the blue-eyed man who suddenly touched bare skin. He was one hell of a tall guy and reaching up to him, simply to put her left hand onto his shoulder made her t-shirt slightly slide upwards, exposing a bit of skin above her waistline. She shuddered at his touch. _Why was that?_ Okay, this was unfamiliar to her, not even with Seto Kaiba, but with any man. Bare skin wasn't to touch at her so far. Usually, when she was dancing, she was wearing dresses, which wouldn't expose skin at waistline. _This must have been it._ The reason causing her to shudder…

"Now, just try to match my moves." She ordered and took a step back, then backwards and right, forward and left.

Kaiba gazed down at her small feet moving quickly. Trying to follow his blue eyes focused on her steps. What the hell was she doing there? He couldn't make out a system within her moves. He saw that obviously she was doing it right, it felt like a system but visibly he couldn't make out one. Like she had said, he just tried to match her moves.

"I think we should put on music now." Letting go of the brunette she grabbed the remote and pushed 'play'.

'_I've known a few guys who thought they were pretty smart…'_

And the music was blaring and filling the room until Serenity found the button to adjust the volume to a lower level. Her gaze met then Kaiba's quirked eyebrow. Cross-armed he mustered the girl with a look she hadn't known so far.

'_You think you're a genius – you drive me up the wall…'_

"**WHAT?**" She hissed at him and his penetrate, arrogant, high above everything, stupid stare.

'_You're a regular original, a know-it-all'_

"Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that Shania Twain or what she's called?" He coldly asked in a disgusted manner.

"Yeah, so? Got a problem with that?" Crossing her arms as well she glared back at him with fire literally behind her hazel-colored orbs, burning him down, even if just mentally. _Burn, motherf---er… _She was sure, she had that song, too!

"No, but this is country music and as far as I'm concerned I do not want to learn SQUARE DANCE!" He spat as her.

'_Oh, you're think you're special  
__Oh, you think you're something else'_

"Listen, you dumb nut, this is the perfect music to dance to and by the way, it is POP MUSIC!" She yelled back at him, the insult wasn't planned but was doing herself good.

'_So you got the brain but have you got the touch?'_

"It is country music, a very bad one by the way!" He stayed calm, which was even more frightening instead of his usual yelling – that was the dragon Kaiba – but the freezing calm and deadly man – that was the vampire Kaiba – and Serenity hadn't eaten any garlic. **_Congratulations, we have a winner! _**

'_So you got the looks but have you got the touch?'_

"Are you actually listening to that crap?" Blue eyes blazed. Hopefully he didn't want her for dinner – cooked or maybe fried.

"No! I've borrowed this from Téa. Not that it's any of your business. After all, it is the perfect music to learn how to dance. Do you think you can get this in your brain somehow?" Serenity wasn't a dragon; nor was she a vampire. She simply was a robbery-cat-like demon goddess, and be sure, safe was not even Kaiba.

'_That don't impress me much…'_

"Are you insulting my brains, Wheeler?" He growled in the finest dark, cold and low tone he could effort lying within his voice. "You better not."

"Can we… just…" Serenity waved with her hands in the air, wildly gesturing in frustration now. "…put this aside and keep dancing? For God's sake!"

"For my sake, you mean." He remarked quite dryly. "Do we really need to listen to Téa's country square dance folk music?"

"If you have something else to dance to. I have no other CD." She blew a bang of auburn hair from out of her face as she settled back in front of him. "If _not_, just _damn_ get it over with."

"Fine, Wheeler. If you insist." He smirked, knowing she wasn't insisting on anything but a little game of 'annoying the red-head' wouldn't harm, now would it?

Taking her hand in his and putting the other on her hip, he gazed down at her, waiting for her to get ready. Serenity was a bit taken by surprise by his abrupt action and looked up at him, gaping slightly in confusion. WAKE UP! She shook her head to become focused on her task, putting her free hand on his shoulder.

The CD kept playing. The girl felt the rhythm. One, two, three… And she began to dance while Kaiba was trying to follow her every step. Serenity was going forward, Kaiba as well. A howling noise escaped the young man; then he cursed words that should make him feel ashamed for using the same mouth that kissed his mother; if he still had one.

"Damn it! Can't you watch where you're going?"

"I'm sorry but you're supposed to _match_ my moves, not to do the opposite!" She hissed at him.

Kaiba just growled under his breath.

"Let's try again." She stated and moved backwards, which was safer after all. The brunette at her hand moved backwards as well. Unfortunately his step was bigger thanks to his long limbs!

"_Owww_!" The hazel-eyed screeched. "You bastard!" Freeing one hand she swung her fist at his upper arm! BANG! Just like that on impulse.

"_OW_!" The CEO yelled, rubbing his arm. "Are you insane?"

"You've done that on purpose! Admit it! You jerk!" The small witch fumed at him, spitting fire.

"I didn't! Are you crazy? You dimwit of a teacher!" Yelling was one thing he was good at!

"I'm not crazy! You stepped on my foot as some kind of sick vengeance, you… you… you nerd!"

"Nerd? NERD? I may be a lot of things, but I am certainly not a NERD! Take it back!" Oh yeah, growling was the other thing he was really good at.

"No, why? You stepped on my foot! Apologize first!" She crossed her arms, head red with fury.

"Forget it. I'd rather die." The arrogant Kaiba was back! _Alright…_

"I wished you'd do."_ Who's bad? _Okay, she was.

"…" A low grunt was all noise that came out of the young CEO. The insult was sinking deeper inside of him than he wouldn't even admit. _That_ was hard. Seto Kaiba could take anything but not easily. _SHE WISHED HE'D DIE!_ Did he deserve that? _Stupid cow. _

Serenity bit her bottom lip. She had shut him up. That was good. Bad was that she had a conscience that was scolding her right now with phrases like '_how could you say that_' or '_nobody deserves to die_' or '_are you out of your mind_'. The list of sentences was endless; she simply sighed.

"Sorry. Kaiba. I shouldn't have said that." Slowly she lifted her head to look at him. "I didn't mean it that way. You do know that."

"Hmph." Was a traditional noise good or bad? The girl had no time thinking about it anyway as he grabbed one of her hands in his and put the other one back to her hip. "Let's go on with the dancing." Oh, his voice dripped with coldness as he was being offended quite madly.

Right. At least it had finished their argument. But still, Serenity felt a bit bad about it. She had laughed about him, mean and cruel at times, that was fun. What _she_ had said about dying was no fun anymore.

She had apologized.

Now back to the dancing lessons.

"I'm going to start moving backwards, okay?" She softly said and slowly made her step back. He followed matching her move. She smiled.

Slowly she kept making her moves as easy on him as she was able to. He followed as he kept staring at her feet moving.

"Don't look down. Keep eye-contact. It's easier if you feel how to move than to see." She explained in a soft tone.

"Are you sure?" One thing he knew, he wasn't. He would step on her feet again if he looked into her eyes.

"Feel my moves. You'll know the steps." She tried to assure and actually it seemed to work.

Seto didn't step on her feet. He totally matched her moves! They even began moving to the rhythm, a bit faster than before. It worked! Hallelujah, it was working! He could dance! He was able to lead a girl across the dance floor; actually DANCING. And it felt good. _He_ was good.

Very slowly and unnoticed a smile crept up his face. Serenity saw and gazed up into his eyes. They were shining a bit; unfamiliar but yet nice. As was his smile. Not a single bit creepy. It actually… reached his eyes. That caused them to look so much better even, _if_ that was possible. She liked it, the smile of Seto Kaiba.

Serenity smiled with him. "You can dance."

"I can dance!" Kaiba repeated, almost joyful but still doubting reality. "Ha! I dance!"

The girl laughed at his childish joy, liking him that way. "You're a naturally talent."

"A talent of nature!" The blue-eyed CEO exclaimed. "I'm a quick learner! See?"

"I see!" She happily laughed, being led by the brunette in gentle, yet fast strides, god-like even.

_Pooh, was it suddenly hotter in here or was she catching the flu? _Her cheeks burned somehow in contrary to her cold hands – gladly one of them was held by a very pleasant warm hand. Two hazel eyes examined the human radiator, offering her warmth. Seto was still smiling, enjoying his newly experienced skill for dancing. If he smiled like this more often, there would be no need to flirt even, so damn attractive was his cute smile! Serenity almost double-flipped over her own thoughts.

Was that really _she_ thinking _that_? Oh yeah, it was. She knew it because of her rising blush. Who cared as long as he smiled for her? And he did, didn't he? She taught him to dance, resulting in making him smile. Had she some kind of effect on him? He surely had one on her, but only right now, she mentally added. Maybe she had affected him too…

"You know, Wheeler," Kaiba stopped smiling, gazing down at her, "Seeing as I learn ever so quickly it should only be a matter of days until I will go out, ready to kill. Not literally of course, but no man, and I mean absolutely no one of the male race, will stand a ghost of a chance against me! I'm going to find the perfect girlfriend for me!"

Serenity looked up at him. There was this determined spirit within him and somehow it made her feel strange… In a matter of days he would go out and simply pick a woman. What if he picked Serenity? **_Don't jump into conclusions, girl!_ **Not that she wanted him to pick her… But maybe… And _if_? Then? Would she be glad? Maybe… He could always pick someone else. Who would it be?

Strange thoughts, _too strange_ in a way. She freed herself from his grip and went to put off the CD-Player.

"I think it's enough. We'll better go on tomorrow with the regular task of teaching you how to chat up."

Kaiba stood for a moment, feeling suddenly lost. There he was, almost ready to hit the clubs and yet, something felt wrong. But what was it?

_Rewind._

Seto was dancing with Serenity, suddenly feeling proud of himself, _happy_ even. A moment of bliss was crossing his path in such a daily routine action, being able to dance. It wasn't that much of a deal after all. So why the sudden good mood? Why feeling _happy_? There was no need to in this place, was there?

Good things were happening every day, like a pleasant contract, his brother receiving brilliant grades, Kaiba Corp. releasing a new product, another million adding to his bank account, Seto firing one of his employees; the list went on. Why feeling _happy_ because of a simple DANCE?

"Earth to Kaiba!" The small hand waved in front of his face and he snapped back to what was real.

_Wheeler_. "What do you want?"

"Ooh, the grump's woken." She smirked. "About time. What were you dreaming about? Your future girlfriend and page three model?"

"You."

**HOLD ON.**

_What did he just say?_

Serenity's jaw dropped a bit, gasping for words. He was dreaming about her! He was dreaming about her? W---W---Why?

"You," He smirked in the old cold-CEO-fashion, "and how I'm going to cut your payment for every stupid sentence from you. You're lucky it's not your strength to form full sentences at all."

"Cheeky bastard." She spat as him through clenched teeth, dripping with sarcasm, eyes spitting frozen daggers of ice at him. Turning she went without another word.

It simply amused Seto.

_That Wheeler demon was so… so… so different._

_-_

End of chapter five.

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A/N: I hope it was still funny, I wasn't so sure this time because of all the moments of serious thinking ;D I'm not pleased to 100 percent with this chapter… hope you like it though!

I've used parts from out of a song to support the visual effect of seeing Seto and Serenity, screaming at each other while the music is playing in even some kind of metaphor. I don't know if ffnet appreciates that; nor if Shania T. does but what can I say, no risk no fun. I'll keep it in, see what happens.

-

_Authors are eccentric.  
__I'm more than happy about any single positive review.  
__Because there may be thousand great reviews but only one negative can destroy your motivation, enthusiasm and inspiration.  
__Gladly I didn't receive negative ones but to them who ever did:  
__Stick up your middle finger in the air! ;D  
__My 'writing teacher' doesn't like the plot. Who cares? As long as you great people do!  
__Thank you so much._


	6. Day Five

_I'm slightly running out of ideas how to go on… Hold on. I got one! ;D Or maybe two…  
__**Thank you for your reviews; it means an awful huge lot to me!**_

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**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

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Chapter Six

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"**Day Five"**

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'_You're simply the best…'_

Kaiba woke to the sound of the alarm clock of his cell phone. His favorite real sound was once again approving as he stretched across the sofa. He loved this song, the reason obvious. He had taken a short nap of exactly twenty minutes to gather some strength before his next lesson and yawned. Checking his wristwatch he realized that he had only mere minutes left until 'Professor Serenstupidity Wheelerette' would show up at his mansion.

He pressed the button of the intercom. "Seto Kaiba. Bring coffee to my office..." Coffee would pressure the urge for tobacco, _bad, very bad_. "…and something sweet." _Serenity_.

**Where the hell did that come from?** _Was he losing his mind?_ One second he was thinking of chocolate, but voicing out sweet, the next he considered the little red-haired witch as being sweet! _He was still dreaming!_ A nightmare to be precise. He slapped his flat palm across his cheek. _Man, was he tired_. Overworked. That must have been the reason for such a ridiculous thought.

"_Mr. Kaiba, Sir? There's vanilla cake, chocolate cookies, chocolate bars, strawberry doughnuts, blueberry muffins…" _

"Chocolate cookies." Appropriate. But think of to remind Mokuba not to write the shopping list for the maids alone again!

"_Five minutes, Sir."_

Kaiba sighed. Oh, raw nerves in that early age… He should go and see Dr. Hankok. Maybe his blood pressure was too high, again. He went to his desk and opened his calendar.

Tuesday; 9 a.m.: _Call Doc_.

There was a knock on the door and Kaiba called for entry. His maid was serving the ordered coffee and cookies with a bow to her boss. Neatly she set the table and filled his cup with coffee while Seto settled down on the sofa. The maid bowed again as she was ready to leave.

"Oh Kaiba, wouldn't have been necessary."

_The devil herself, Wheeler._ Serenity had a smug grin on her face combined with the mockingly raised eyebrow at the table, set for our Highness, Seto Kaiba.

"Nice of you to invite me for coffee whilst tutoring you." She swayed in smooth, small strides to the table and sat down on the sofa next to him.

Kaiba punished the demon goddess with a glare but to no avail. "That's not for you, Wheeler."

"What?" She mocked sadness and disappointment. "You've forgotten me? You must have forgotten me. You would never do something like this on purpose and forget me, wouldn't you, Seto?" Serenity kind of purred his first name, eager to annoy the young CEO a bit.

Kaiba growled in response. Gladly he wasn't woken properly yet, otherwise he would surely come up with some Wheeler-destroying remark. The lack of sleep lately had gotten to him finally, probably, surely. **_Why else_** would he feel this stirring inside of his stomach when she had said his name… _first name_…? Seto. It sounded so much… _different_… than from anyone else.

**HOW? **His current condition worried him a bit; maybe calling the doctor wasn't enough. He would go and see the doc! This illness had to be cured immediately!

"I'm going to bring another set, Miss. "The maid bowed, apologizing for the misunderstanding. She hadn't known her master would await a guest. "I'm sorry. I must have forgotten this."

Out of words the blue-eyed brunette gazed at his maid, who was rushing out of the door, only to come back seconds later to serve his guest coffee.

"Thank you." Serenity smiled at the maid. Kaiba had nice staff; she had to admit.

Sighing inwardly Kaiba turned to look at the small girl next to him. "You think you're really smart, don't you, Wheeler? I assume you do realize I won't depend on you forever. The day our deal's over will come sooner than you expect and one day you'll regret playing the smart ass, I promise."

"Nice threat, Kaiba." The hazel-eyed woman just smiled. "Gladly you're a man with humor; otherwise I'd be oh so scared of you right now." Sarcasm was dripping from her voice, so much that Kaiba was already even impressed instead of angry.

"You have guts, Wheeler." Kaiba chuckled. "Prove yourself as what you're here for."

"Is that a challenge?" She asked funnily whilst stuffing one of the cookies inside of her delicate mouth. "Mmh…delicious."

In trance, suddenly, he watched her mouth chewing on that cookie… and reminded himself mentally to go with the tobacco next time! "You just named it."

Serenity almost choked on her cookie at his sudden hoarse voice. Gulping down what she was chewing on she grabbed for the cup and drank. "Ouch!" She cursed, almost spitting the hot liquid across the table.

**Hot! Hot! Hot!**

The coffee… _and_ Kaiba.

"What have you got in store for me today?" Back was he, the non-emotional CEO.

"Errr… quite a lot of things." She said. "At first there are some things you shouldn't say in order to score, I mean, with chatting up."

"As like?"

"Don't ever say such things like '_Are you here often?_'. That's so lame. As well as '_Am I allowed to press your beautiful body against mine?_'. That's even disgusting, too. And please don't ask '_What's your zodiac sign?_'. Who cares about zodiac signs? I wouldn't want a guy who's first checking horoscopes if we might match. Bullshit." Serenity almost scolded teacher-like.

"Touchy. What's your zodiac sign?" Kaiba just asked out of amusement.

"That's not… that's… WHY?" She just told him not to ask! Okay, he wasn't chatting her up but… NO. Why was he interested in her damn zodiac sign? "What's yours Kaiba?"

"You tell me yours first." He propped his chin on his palm, resting his elbow on his knee and smirked. "Then I will tell you mine."

"That's childish."

"So? Then just say it and I'll stop annoying you."

Serenity groaned annoyed and waved her hands in the air suddenly. "Fine! Mine's Taurus!"

"That explains why you're always so stubborn." Pleased with the answer he had finally gotten, Seto leant back.

"So, what's yours?" _C'mon, Kaiba, tell her_. She desperately wanted to know now and analyze his behavior like he had done with her!

"Mine?" Arrogantly he sipped his coffee as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Yeah, yours!" She had a temper, he could tell. "What's your damn zodiac sign?"

"Scorpio. Now, satisfied with my answer?" Plan was to act as if she was the one who bugged him with stars, horoscopes and zodiac signs all the time. He would play the ever so annoyed, mature, no nonsense allowing CEO.

"…" Serenity stared at the young man next to her for a moment before she gasped for breath. "This can't be true. Tell me the truth. I don't believe you."

"It _is_ the truth. Why should I lie about something as unimportant as this? In fact, I'm born October, 25th. If you still want to act like a child and won't believe me, read my ID." He coolly said, slightly confused at her sudden attitude.

"But…" **Huh?** "But Scorpio's are supposed to be honest, maybe a bit scheming but very emotional and passionate and…they'd be… they'd be…"

"What are they?" He narrowed his eyes.

"My match." She hung her shoulders in disappointment, then, suddenly, glared at him, furious. "YOU are NONE of THAT!"

HER MATCH? WHAT? Did she honestly believe in this crap? Surely not…

Kaiba could use this though and smirked. "How would you know, Wheeler? I am honest to hundred percent, not like you hypocrites who'd tell anything just to caress each other's wimpy and weak souls. Scheming I may be too for my own benefit but only to limits, okay? And passionate I am obviously. I'm passionate about a lot of things and maybe even more than you, certainly, won't see ever." He pointed an accusing finger at her. "My emotional side as well, maybe I have one, maybe not. That's none of your business."

Serenity opened her mouth to protest when she failed to form words, her mouth closed again. The action repeated itself a few times until she finally just crossed her arms, sulking. The damn bastard was even right. He was honest, scheming, and passionate (at least about Duel Monsters, his company and his only sibling)… but emotional? **Pah!** _Never_.

"Are you done behaving so childish?" Kaiba asked in a sigh.

"If _you_ are." The girl smirked slightly. "It's not that I believe in horoscopes anyway."

"Sure. Is that why you know so much about my zodiac sign?" He returned the smirk in very better fashion of showing superior domination.

"I've just read about matching zodiac signs in some stupid magazine. Never mind." She desperately needed to get away from that particular topic. "Have you got any clue where you're going to find any women?"

"What?" Confusing. Was she doing that on purpose? Kaiba scowled skeptically. "They're everywhere."

"Hm… but you still haven't got one. I'll tell you something. Here are some clues where to find women and where to get to know some. At first at parties, of course. If you get to know someone at a party it might have the advantage of having at least one mate in common."

"Like, who do I know who knows attractive women." A very pessimistic smirk crossed the CEO's facial expression. "Like, I do know, for example, you and you might have nice girlfriends…" Testing, just testing here, if Wheeler knew anyone else at all.

"Yes," Serenity smiled with smug force, "If I invited you to a party of mine, I'll surely have some very attractive friends." She waited until his face visibly lit up at the mere thought and then… "Bad luck for you, I'd never invite you to any of my parties."

"Who wants to be the only guest anyway?" Quick-thinking smart ass. "That is, if I'd show up at all."

"Right," The girl sighed, knowing if she kept playing the smart one, they'd keep fighting verbally like politicians for a vote, constantly throwing oh so smart but very cynic comments at one another. "The next possible location to get to know someone would be cinema."

"I don't know about you, but I usually watch a film there instead of talking; if I ever go to cinema." He stated matter-of-factly. Not even sarcastic he was. It was simply true.

"I'm talking about the row, Kaiba. When there's quite a long row, it's the perfect opportunity to start a conversation, with a bit of a smile you can easily talk to someone." Actually, he could scare them off to be the first in row, Serenity mentally snickered at the thought.

"I've never been standing in a row and guess what, Wheeler, I never will. People are used to stand out of my way and if not I make them." There was this look in his eyes, the same he got whenever talking about challenging Yugi to a duel and Serenity rolled her eyes. "I don't go to cinema anyway."

"Fine, what about dancing events? Switching partners constantly, like when…"

"Square dance isn't my thing, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Shopping malls are great to meet people! Where do you go shopping usually?"

"I order my labels online."

"You're never going outside in a shopping mall?"

"Rarely." Kaiba shrugged. "Where's the need to? My staff buys food and everything to keep the household. My brother and I order clothes online. The only exception would be cars… does they count?"

Serenity shook her head sadly. Hell, it was really not so easy to send the multimillion CEO somewhere he might chat up a woman. Seems like there really was a problem - other than he himself - to get involved in some kind of a relationship.

"Book shops." She suddenly blurted out. "Do you read? Sure you do. Buy your books and magazines in book shops. Some of them even offer the costumer coffee and tables to read. You might find a nice companion there."

"Good idea," He grabbed for a brownie and bit in it, munching it down in thoughts. "Maybe some female is even able to read the 'Financial Times'? That'd be cool."

He-he. Serenity couldn't suppress her amused smile. He could, even if it was hardly imaginable, be really sweet at times, like now, when he was in deep thoughts, probably pondering in his mind about a girl discussing with him some boring financial statistics. That wasn't funny but the dreamy face of his whilst chewing on that cookie.

"What?" Kaiba quirked an eyebrow at his teacher. "Any more constructive ideas?"

"Hm…" _Teacher-mode activated_. "In restaurants, when someone sits alone, you might ask if you're allowed to join. It may be risky though. It they say yes, you won't have to eat alone. But if they say no, you might even lose your appetite."

Kaiba just scribbled the info on some random sheet of paper lying there ready to fill with instructions during his lesson.

"Another possibility would be charity work if you do so what I doubt you do." The girl raised an eyebrow in sympathy.

Kaiba, again, wrote it down. "I doubt finding any adequate candidate in an orphanage. Young women usually won't love to work there. They're too weak. A strict hand is needed in such a place, after all." He gazed up at Serenity casually. "And I'm not really into elderly nurses."

HE DOES WORK IN AN ORPHANAGE? HE OF ALL PEOPLE? THE HEAD HONCHO FREAK OF THE FREAKS? SETO KAIBA HIMSELF? DOING… _THIS! _Serenity shook head in order to clear her mind and ears, worrying they might be blocked up and she couldn't hear right.

"What are _you_ doing in an orphanage? I mean, what kind of work."

Seto smirked. _SURPRISED!_ Girl, if _you_ knew… But he would answer her question. "Mostly I just financially support them, buying not just toys but necessary things to guarantee a good education or an adequate stage of luxury for kids their age. If I can afford the time I use to pay a visit every once in a while. Lately I was tutoring them in Duel Monsters."

_Bugging brats!_ But Mr. Kaiba suppressed the urge to voice that out. He liked them, though, somehow, just a bit, a bit more even maybe – he felt like the big brother to them. And, after all, being a big brother he did like a huge lot.

"You know," He suddenly kept talking and leant back stretching his long legs out under the table, "I was thinking about building a Duelists Academy." It slipped off his lips faster than he actually wanted. He felt the need to give a threatening glare at the small Wheeler. "Don't tell anyone about this, I dare you! As my teacher you're obligated to keep everything I tell you a secret!"

_Yeah, sure, as if…_ Serenity remained calm and took a deep breath. She wasn't his shrink, after all and last she checked she hadn't wrote her name under any contract. What was he thinking of her? Didn't he trust her, or just anyone at all? Oh, yeah, right – he didn't. But in the end his idea sounded great and therefore, she just smiled supporting.

"I won't," She said, "Sounds like a great idea to me."

"Just an idea." Kaiba had enough of that topic. Some things should remain a secret after all. What was he thinking in the first place?

"Okay, let's go on," Serenity found it hard not to keep pushing him. She wanted to know more. Maybe he was right after all and there were sides in Seto Kaiba she wouldn't know at all. "I'm going to speed this up a bit, okay? More possible places would be during political work because of the same intentions you'd have. Then there would be sports. Team sports offer fun and fitness and aren't dangerous, plus there's always the little come-together afterwards. Um… sport events are good, too. Maybe even Duel Monsters tournaments as some kind of sport, like chess is also. But only when you like the same competitor, otherwise you won't get along with the one you're talking to…"

"Why is that?" A discussion about something logical as Duel Monsters should always be objective; there wasn't even place for second opinions; was there?

"For example, you and I are sitting, watching my brother fight against… well, let's just say… Mai Valentine. Predict the winner, Kaiba."

"Valentine. Even though she's just a woman, she'd be better than the mutt." Logical for Kaiba, insulting for Joey.

Serenity hadn't expected anything else, sadly. She sighed. "Okay, I'd go with Joey and that he'd be the winner. So you'd have no chance with me if you insult him. Clear?"

"Not really…" Kaiba smirked.

"Well, then imagine Yugi and Marik Ishtar dueling. Your prediction?"

"Yugi." Matter of fact, he had beaten him once, he'd do it again.

"I'd say the same and look, from my point of view we get along. I'd like you more." Point proved.

"Are you saying that you only would like me if I have always the same opinion as you?" That was confusing, and even – insulting!

"Seeing it superficial, yes. And small talk like chatting up or talking to someone for the first time at all is superficial." Matter of fact; that was true as well.

"True." Logic and truth weren't always close, he had to admit.

"Well, then there are places you should avoid trying to chat someone up or getting to know someone." Serenity was all into her teacher status right now. Oh, was she liking it! "Like the office or your working place at all. In your case your employees would think of you badly or you might even hurt someone with being with their ex-partner. It would be a lot of gossip going around, which makes a bad image of you. Though, it is tempting."

"Hm…"

In this very moment Kaiba's maid decided to fill up both their cups with coffee again. Serenity gave a small friendly smile at the rather young aged woman in her black and white working dress. Examining the employee of her student, the hazel-eyed girl registered the maid's highly attractive looks; the short black hair that covered her head in a fashionable way, supported by two amazingly big dark eyes. But adding to that were her long slim shaped legs within the short skirted dress and its low neckline! **Bang**! SUMMARY: **_Was Kaiba tempted to lay his hands on his maid?_**

Kaiba meanwhile was stirring the black liquid in front of him – _why_? That was a good question. Black coffee, no sugar, why stirring it at all? _**Could it be that Mr. CEO was indeed daydreaming? **Having pictures of a certain employee right now…_

"So you want _her_."

The blue-eyed man laid down his spoon on the saucer and gazed boringly at the girl next to him. _What did she want again? Had he missed out on something? What was the matter? Insanity must run in her family…_

"Who?"

"You perfectly well know who." She shot back. Playing dumb wasn't helping him this time!_ She knew his secret!_ At least she was sure that she did.

"No." Now, he was finally being sure to hundred percent about her psychical disease. "But I can recommend someone to help you, Wheeler." _Bring your brother, too – ha-ha._

"You're the one who needs help if you honestly think you'd have a chance with your maid!" Yeeeaaah, aaand one more point goes to the incredible, amazing and fantastiiiiiiiiic…. Seeerenityyy Wheelaaaaa! (You hear the stadium's speaker.)

"My…huh? _My what?_ My maid? Are you completely snapping, Wheeler?" She had lost all common sense and brain and whatever little thing usually helped her thinking – what was that with women? Seto was sure he soon had to call an ambulance for the little hazel-eyed devil.

"You could at least admit it!" She jumped to her feet, in the process knocking down the cup with coffee he held in his hand. _"O-H---F-U-C-K!"_

Hazel-eyes gazed at the hand which hit something hard, realizing that it was the cup in Kaiba's left hand before she watched like in slow motion how the black liquid left its place _inside_ the cup, swamp _out_ of it and shoot like a wonderfully dark cascade in the CEO's direction. Wide-eyed the girl clamped her hands over her mouth as it, finally, poured down on his snow white business shirt! From the stains on his shirt to his blue-eyes she didn't dare to look at all.

Seto didn't saw it coming. To him, it wasn't like in slow motion. Something hit him. Something burnt him. That was it. _Damn_. And the moment the warm liquid touched his sensible skin – after all it was his belly, the place where he… let's continue this later – he jumped from up his sitting position on the sofa to a standing and slightly bending forward form, pulling his disgustingly wet shirt between thumb and index finger from off his body. And of course, he was cursing!

"Damn it! What the--- Ouch! Watch what you're doing!" His voice barked at her but she just couldn't tear her gaze away from the dark stain on the bright shirt.

"Oh shit."

"Yeah, oh shit." He hissed in an annoyed tone, glaring down at the small Wheeler.

Serenity's eyes slowly, like in trance, wandered upwards the CEO's slender body to his head, his eyes to be exact, the two icy slits of blue, fuming like frozen fire – can fire freeze? However, it damned on her finally that she was just standing there, gawking. Quickly she tried to regain her sensed and grabbed for the napkin on the table, dabbing carefully at the brunette's stomach with it in a very embarrassing manner.

"Oh Kaiba, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to… It was an accident! I'm so sorry…" She babbled whilst continuing her task – as if it would really help now, would it?

Seto gave out a small growl and grabbed her wrist to shove it away from her target, _him_. The girl looked at him, ashamed, bashful, yeah and of course blushing madly. Not only had she obviously drowned Kaiba's shirt in coffee, no she dabbed him like a grandmother with a stupid napkin as if it would help. **Hello**! That shirt had been white, the coffee black. A _napkin_ certainly couldn't do wonders!

Kaiba groaned at her simple presence and the fact that he needed to get that wet thing of his skin, it was a disgusted feeling around his navel, which resulted in him shivering, _how awful_! With just a slight push of his arm Serenity landed back on the sofa while Seto was stomping his way over to the drawers beneath his desk. _Somewhere inside, but where… there had to be… somewhere here… **uhu!**_ He found it!

The girl swallowed. _How embarrassing!_ She anxiously watched the tall-grown technique freak snapping open his drawer and hastily pulling out a shirt, throwing it on the desk. Before the auburn-haired could even blink twice he had lifted his arms to grab the shirt on his back, pulling it quickly over his head. God, she needed to bandage her head in order to keep her jaw from dropping, resulting in her salvia to ooze from out of the corners of her mouth! _Bad, bad._ It was already enough that her eyes were balling and leaving slightly their usual area inside of her head.

But, as I can imagine, you want to know, **why was that?** _(Play dumb with me, I'm telling you anyway.) _

As the shirt was being lifted over the brown locks of Kaiba's head his back was slightly bending, showing the dragon-like eddies of his seemingly never ending spine, beginning so far down at his waist up to the nape. A few ribs she could make out as well. All in all it was so damn smooth that she needed to swallow the sudden amount of liquid in her mouth. From his exposed back to the curves of his upper arms, indicating his trained form, there wasn't much way to go and her eyes drank in the sight. _Oh my…_

Kaiba threw the shirt carelessly on the ground, moving his shoulder blades in the process. Every movement of the muscles was having an effect like she was getting high at the moment, smoking some illegal things. He grabbed for the white t-shirt on his desk and lifted it to stuck his head in the hole, in the process bending his arm upwards, giving the girl a good view of how strongly built his biceps was after all. _**Swallow**, the second._

Whilst shoving the cloth over his head and down his body, her hazel eyes glued to what exposed skin was left. That meant at first across his though skinny but broad chest, then down across his stomach to his waist. And **_there_**, she had seen it! **_How cute!_** The tiny, oh so tiny-tiny, light, so cutie light trail of thin baby soft hair from his navel down to the waistline, only giving her a slight clue on where it might end… SIGH! _**Swallow**, the third. _

And hey, it was _sooo_ damn hot in here. Was something wrong with the mansion's radiation system? **Pooh**! _Blink, blink_… and her vision was so blurry, hopefully she wouldn't fall unconscious!

Seto took a few big strides back to the girl, casually flopping down on the sofa next to her again. A bit mad he was still but to what use? _Senseless_! He sighed annoyed while Serenity, red in the face, bit her bottom lip.

"Sorry, Kaiba, I really didn't mean to---"

"Yeah, whatever." He muttered at her, running a hand through his hair in order to straighten the strands, which had fallen out of place.

Bravely the girl turned to the guy next to her but instead of focusing on his eyes – the last she would do right now – the first frightening step brought her eyes to a halt at the picture on his ever so perfectly body-hugging t-shirt. _How cute!_ **A Blue-eyes plushie!**

"This looks nice." She smiled. A compliment would mend his foul mood, wouldn't it?

But there was something else. The Blue-eyes was surrounded by the words, written in bold red letters, saying: _Cuddle me – I don't bite_. Hee-hee. She giggled slightly. "That's funny."

"It's a gift from my brother to my last birthday. He thought it was looking cute. Though, I don't intend to cuddle my t-shirt…"

Kaiba could be as dimwitted as he claimed other's to be, honestly. Serenity smiled at his dense attitude. She, surely, knew what Mokuba was indicating with that gift of his! Everyone, not only Serenity, even the media for example, had compared Seto Kaiba to his beloved Blue-Eyes White Dragon (or any other dragon) once or twice. He was claimed to be superior, dangerous, menacing, threatening, frightening, proud and of course, last but not least, biting. So Mokuba's message clearly said: _Cuddle my big brother – he doesn't bite._

Could Mokuba be trusted? He was a Kaiba, too. Even Seto's same flesh and bone. _Difficult_…

"Uh, I think it's cute. And it suits you." Serenity had a point and she hated lying.

"Mm…" Kaiba observed his shirt skeptically. "Do you think girls would like it? I mean, they probably like all this plushie crap. Then again, Pegasus does as well but he's probably gay. I don't want to look gay, not in my worst nightmare!"

The girl laughed at his behavior. "I've never met Pegasus in real, so I can't tell about his sexual preferences." And Kaiba, well, he even chuckled with her, almost laughing, as she kept on talking. "It does look sweet, but gay? Don't know… nah! It makes you look a bit more boyish."

"_Boyish_?" His gaze narrowed in confusion when his smile faded.

"Younger. You're looking younger in it." She rolled her eyes but laughed still.

"How much younger?" He didn't like the thought of looking like a kid!

"Just a bit, don't worry. Still older than me." She grinned deviously. "Wear this and a worn out blue jeans and you have to watch out for girls biting your ass!"

_**OOPS!** Did she just say that!_ Kaiba's sudden smirk told her so. **_Oh no, oh no, oh no…_**

"You think?" Her opinion had to have some root within her mind. The thought at all was quite nice, but not primary important, though. "I won't wear filthy jeans in order to make someone like me, though. Physical attraction should be secondary."

But he would save her opinion of him, though. Wouldn't hurt, now would it?

"You are clearly something else, Seto Kaiba. I've never met such a complex guy like you." The young woman just shook her head at him. _Dense_? Sometimes he was. _Stupid_? Not at all. He had his points and kept them. _Immensely stubborn_? Yes. Maybe he was the Taurus after all… "Shall we go on with your lesson or are you having enough of me for today?"

"No, keep it coming, Wheeler. I'm all ears for you." The tone was quite sarcastic but only Kaiba himself knew how much truth his words held. Cause, _true_ they were.

"I'm going to make it short though. Places not to meet women would be dark bars, in which people usually are drinking. The darkness and the alcohol might hinder the optic immensely and that's not a good start for a proper relationship." Serenity counted her reasons even with her fingers, to support herself visibly. "Online isn't a good idea either. Computer communication might give you the illusion of intimacy though you're actually far away. When you finally meet face to face, there may be too many expectations. A simple chat is okay but distance relationships don't work usually. You might end up thinking you knew more of the other than you really do."

"How do you know?" He was curious if she knew all that out of experience or another girl's magazine.

"Tristan had an online girlfriend for six months." She blurted out casually until she realized _whom_ she had even told.

"Spike head? What happened?" Kaiba cocked his head to one side.

"Promise me to keep it a secret at first!" She demanded waving a finger.

Seto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I promise. Now, tell me." This was _sooo_ interesting! That spike head had had an online girlfriend, _that_ shadow of the mutt with a female, _imagine_! Ha-ha. At least he wasn't together with Serenity…

"They met after six months, okay, and let's just say she wasn't really the pride of mother earth. Not that it was so bad that Tristan would have split up with her but she was… well, quite '_one-track-minded_'." She supported her sentence visional, making little sign with her fingers. "Plus, it seemed that he wasn't the only one she was '_dating'_."

One corner of Kaiba's mouth twitched, then broke out into his traditional mean smirk but his blue eyes sparkled with a glint of pure fun. Indeed, to him, it was hilarious!

"Virus alert." He simply said with a hint of a joke.

"Quite." The girl agreed. "So, you see, not a great idea how to get a girlfriend. By the way, try to avoid events especially for singles. There you could literally feel the people's desperation. That'd be just one hell of stress and expectations…"

"…and a complete waste of money." He completed her sentence.

"Right." That was true after all, even _she_ knew that.

_We_ have to be aware of the fact that they could complete each other's sentences, but, unfortunately, neither of _them_ realized. Too bad…

The girl stifled a yawn suddenly, blinking her eyelids, making them agile and not as heavy as they really were.

"Tired." Not a question but a fact and Kaiba stated the obvious. "Maybe we should take a break and continue tomorrow. I've still got some work to do anyway."

A bit disappointed about his abrupt and unexpected suggestion Serenity's hazel eyes expressed nothing less. But she regained her senses, knowing that he was right. The only thing sad about it was that he was preferring his work over her. Wasn't he? Maybe. Maybe not. Why did she care at all? Truth to be told she knew why. They had come to a point today where… where she had even liked him - somehow. The risk was high that tomorrow everything would be back to normal again.

Normal. What was normal after all?

Serenity sighed. "Tomorrow we'll talk about how to ask for a rendezvous and the date itself. You'll see, it's a matter of planning." Cradling her small purse in her hands she made her way to the door but turned to say Goodbye. Kaiba stood there, hands in his pockets, wearing the cute plushie shirt, and she couldn't help her smile, looking forward to tomorrow. "G'night, Kaiba."

"Wait up." He said as she was about to leave. "One more question before you leave."

"Yeah?"

"I still don't get what was the thing about my maid before you clumsily burnt me with hot coffee. What was that all about?" He hadn't understood a single thing. A freaking Wheeler, talking about a maid, who innocently just had done her work – she was one of the few good employees he had – then the small demon yelling at him to admit something… **WHAT** had _he_ done at all?

"You don't have an idea?" Serenity doubted this. He usually seemed sharp-sensed. Then again, social things weren't his strength… maybe, just maybe…

Kaiba shook his head.

"You don't have the slightest clue?" Okay, she had to be sure! You understand that, don't you?

"I wouldn't ask _if_ I knew." Now his voice was having that sharp stabbing tone what made everyone flinch in response but Serenity just sighed a breath of relief.

"Um…I was just thinking that, well, the maid's uniform seems a bit inadequate, old-fashioned and too… tasteless. Just a thought. Never mind." She shrugged, hoping he'd take it.

"The head maid usually orders their uniforms in self-arrangement but if you think it's that bad I will give her a clue on your opinion." Kaiba crossed his arms. "That's it? That's why you were freaking and pouring coffee down on me?"

"Hey, I've apologized for that!" Did he have to mention it over and over again?

"I accept your apology." Kaiba said as honest as he was. No joke. Very serious. _Woo-hoo._

"Thank you for the cookies and all. They were delicious." She could have been gone long, long ago, don't you think?

"Thank the maid." Seto plastered a smirk upon his lips, not that he would have invited a Wheeler for any cookies.

"Uh… yeah, um… she's nice, isn't she? And well-mannered…" This was going in the supposed direction. "…and she's very beautiful as well, don't you think, Kaiba?" There it was, the final destination of her babbling. Meaningless babbling? No. Not at all. Serenity was way too curious about his view on this point.

"Well-mannered suits. I don't know about anything else, it's not my place to judge about her beauty." He shrugged casually. "She's doing a pretty good job here and that's all that matters, _don't you think, Serenity_?". A bit suspicious he had gotten though now. Why was she asking such weird questions? He had purposely given back the question back to her, including to call her by her first name.

"Yeah." She warily smiled. She felt relieved though_. Why? _She had a clue. "Never mind. Good night."

"Good night." He politely bid as she left his office, heading out of his home.

A strange feeling accompanied Serenity today as she left the Kaiba mansion. Today she had liked Seto Kaiba. _Really_ _liked_. Whatever is was, that made her like him…

-

End of chapter six.

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I like parts of this chapter and I don't like parts - hope you like more than I do. Tell me if it's any good. THX. **;D**


	7. Day Six

_First of all, thanks to my new beta; she's really the best! She did a great job, you'll see. ;D_

_Thanks to all the reviewers! You're my motivation, driving force, inspiration, spur, energy and so on. Please review! There's way to go for me… _

_I hope this chapter's still as funny as the other ones, though it gets a bit… um closer to romance than before. You'll see. Have fun! ;D_

_Sangha_

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**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

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Chapter Seven

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"**Day Six"**

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"M'hello…Kaiba."

Serenity stifled a yawn as she entered Kaiba's office, where he was apparently writing on some papers. When he realized the appearance of his visitor he stopped, nodding his reply before stuffing the papers hastily into one of the drawers. The girl meanwhile plopped onto the sofa, used to her 'work' already. _Teaching Mr. Kaiba._ Heck, the whole thing might be recorded as a movie one day as it was becoming more and more interesting with each passing day.

The young Ms. Wheeler had abandoned every thought of _liking_ the blue-eyed ass since last night's dream, fantasizing about how he would ask her out. This was becoming too weird for her liking. If he really asked her out she'd probably say no anyway. The problem was the '_probably_.' **But anyway!** She had no interest in him. She was just curious.

Now, someone should tell the red-haired dense beauty the difference between curiosity and interest. Or should it be common sense? Just a thought…

"What have you got up your sleeve today, Wheeler?" The CEO asked, joining her.

The girl looked at the brunette and smiled. He was human. Yes, he definitely was. How come she had never noticed this before? It was odd somehow, to suddenly discover that someone was human. Of course he was, but… the realization had to dawn on one in connection with Seto Kaiba. Well, it did.

"I was thinking we should go on to talk about the aspect of asking for a rendezvous. It would be step two after chatting and small talk. Interested?" She was just guessing that _if_ he really were up for a proper relationship, then he'd be more than interested.

The CEO's thoughts were quite similar. "Sure. Go ahead."

Can you imagine your personal computer urging you on? Well, with the blue-eyed CEO named Seto Kaiba it was almost the same. There was that particular emotionless tone in his—quite sexy, all manly, erotic, husky but deep and extremely **_grrrrr_**—voice, which spoke monotonously to you with words like 'go ahead'. _Oh dear, don't even think of saying Kaiba that to you when… arg, don't… just don't think about it. _Was he really human?

Serenity couldn't choose, not that she would have the time to do so. On with the lesson then!

"It may be a frightening thing to ask someone out, but if you think of it, you won't die if she really says yes and life will go one no matter what her answer is."

"I'm not frightened." _Never_ was he frightened. At least he wouldn't admit he'd ever been.

"Of course you're not." She was imagining patting his head like a stubborn child, but she suppressed the urge to do so, frightened that he'd snap her bones in the hand. At least she could admit she was frightened of something, even if it was him—who practically _was_ the devil himself, so. "Never ask for a Friday or a Saturday evening. Start with Wednesday or Thursday maybe and don't ask her to go with you **_sometime_**! Mention an exact date and be flexible about the meeting place. And try to ask about one week or even ten days beforehand."

_---Flirt instructor over.--- ---Roger, Roger.---_

"Yes ma'am." Funny, she could really be a teacher, except for the fact that Kaiba was feeling too old to be a student really and therefore hated to receive orders! It wasn't necessary to mention that anyway but what could he do? He damn well knew he needed this. The least he could do was to take it like a man. _Sigh_. "Ten days would be needed anyway until my next free time with my busy schedule, but mid-week will be a problem. The weekend is the only time my company doesn't eat up all of my time. Is there any chance that I may ask for a day on the weekend?"

"Sure but that's your risk. Politeness is very important and it bids to **not** ask for days during the weekend." Certainly he would not understand that, would he? An example was needed. _Badly_. "You might suggest the 'sleepover' as well then," she ironically added, hoping he'd get the hint.

He did. _Who would have thought?_ A nod sealed his new knowledge.

"Now, we'll see to how to plan a rendezvous. Ready?" Serenity already had a schedule for her 'work' with Kaiba. She wasn't an unprepared girl.

"Allow me to ask you something, Wheeler. What exactly are you studying at University?" Maybe she was indeed turning into a teacher? Out of curiosity Seto desperately needed to know.

The hazel eyes of Ms. Wheeler furrowed slightly, confusion taking over. Was he interested in what she was doing? Seto Kaiba was curious! _He was interested in something!_ In her! **_Hyper-hyper! _**This was like Christmas and Serenity's birthday at the same time. And Joey's birthday as well, because usually his birthday was even better with everyone getting drunk and all. But—_oh, Kaiba-boy, I'm flattered, you're interested in me._ Great time for batting eyelashes at him!

"I'm studying history and art, you know?" She proudly announced her choice of interest in culture. She was an intellectual! _Yeah, she was. _That's what our female champion of naive thought.

"Art and history?" The blue-eyed hot-ass CEO quirked a disapproving eyebrow. "Art is something unnecessary…and history? What use has history here and today? No one needs to know when some European aristocrat went on an ego trip and traveled half of Asia. Anyway, what do I expect of you, Wheeler? I bet this is Yugi's influence. The mutt's too dense."

"ARG!" The red-haired beauty queen of destroyed pride was fuming; meanwhile her blood boiled and her ears spewed smoke! "MY BROTHER IS NOT A MUTT!" Defending herself was useless anyway, so she decided to at least defend Joey.

"He is." Matter-of-fact, Seto's calm voice agreed to his own judgment.

"NOT!" The girl screamed at the CEO so loud that he thought the ringing in his ears would never stop.

Doesn't matter. What mattered was that his hair didn't fall out of place.

He smirked at her. "Calm down, Wheeler. You won't change anything on my opinion. You're just wasting my money and the nerves within your beautiful skin. Just, do what you're here for. Understood?" Ah, yeah, he was an ass.

_But a sexy one._

She had beautiful skin? Serenity's right eyebrow twitched. She had beautiful skin. He had said so and Kaiba was always right, right? He had said Joey was a mutt, too. Well, she guessed then that her poor brother was a bit of a mutt then. Hell, what was more important? The fact that Joey was a mutt? Or Serenity having beautiful skin?

The latter, she decided and smiled.

"Okay, well, there are ten rules you should always follow whilst going on a rendezvous. The first one is—choose an activity that's fun."

"Fun." Kaiba repeated, honestly and seriously thinking with both his brains. (He had this theory about his intelligence that he simply must have two brains inside of his head. Super-brains they were. Like computer chips – small but extremely efficient.)

In annoyance Serenity watched him struggle to come up with an idea of what might be fun. Her patience was short today. But she would let him chew on this one, seeking wrath for judging art and history as crap.

"You better note this, so you'll have the time to think of something later. We don't have all night and we don't want to waste your precious time, now do we?" Now it was time for batting eyelashes as well. But smart-ass eyelashes. _Daft cookie of a CEO!_

But, she had a point. Kaiba did as he was told… well, suggested. It sounded better to his double-brain. Scribbling down the first point he nodded for her to continue.

"Second rule: Chose an activity you can afford. Shouldn't be that much of a problem for you." No need to go into details here. "Rule number three is, go somewhere you can talk. No loud clubs or something like that."

"Sounds logical," he replied, writing as quickly as lightning. He couldn't just type like a maniac but write as well. This man was skilled in so many ways, leaving a girl to wonder where his further skills were hidden…

"Rule number four: Do something you won't need to buy new clothes for! This goes for the girl mainly, do you understand, Kaiba?" She doubted he had anything else than black trousers at all. Maybe Mokuba had given him the one or the other thing apart from that cute Blue-eyes plushie t-shirt? Fingers crossed. "Expensive evening gowns aren't proper for a first date."

"So, not the opera." Kaiba's trademark sign—the smirk—appeared.

_**Scarier than anything you've ever seen before.  
**__Watch out for…  
_THE SMIRK  
Coming across Asia this summer.

Serenity giggled. He-he. This was funny. Kaiba was funny. Just not when he wanted to be but when he thought he was so damn smart. _Ah, sooo cute… _

_**Huh? **No, no…**warning!** Don't ever go there, not even mentally. Stop here or shoot yourself soon. _

"Uh… rule number five. Chose a place easy to reach. That means, no other towns, no outskirts, and no other far away places. Places near a bus or train station are good. Or you simply pick her up at home, all traditional so to speak." Hard work, Serenity could tell. But it was fun. Who had thought?

"Saved," Kaiba simply commented while writing down the information. "Number six?"

"Do something in which neither of you can win or lose. No Duel Monsters or other things like that, Kaiba. She's going to hate you if you shove your ego on her." Just to be sure, she should tell him. One could never know what possessed that mind of his.

"A pity. Sooner or later she's going to hate me anyway, then." He was simply the best. His future girlfriend would have to agree and accept that point. That was final.

"Be optimistic, Kaiba. Once she loves you for the guy you are she will be able to see past your huge ego. But, just to be sure, try to suppress the need to overpower her at the beginning." With sympathy she thought of the hard emotional work for the poor woman. Would there really be someone who could see behind his façade—_like Serenity could? _Oh, she guessed, she could.

"I don't have a huge ego. I just know what I can do and who I am." No, _him_? A huge ego? Kaiba? Impossible! He was just…him. _Errr_…

"Yeah, right." Serenity was honestly too tired to disagree and discuss what his shrink should have done long ago. "Rule number seven: Don't drink too much alcohol."

"It makes people ask weird questions and force others to touch their breasts. Very impolite on first dates. Fortunately we never had one, huh, Wheeler?" Cold laugh. Very cold laughter. Ooh. Freezing temperature in the room and just because a certain blue-eyed bastard thought he was funny.

"I wonder if you ever have been drunk, Kaiba. Have you ever? I bet either you're so used to drinking that it won't affect you anymore or you never drink because you're too afraid of suddenly becoming someone who isn't such an uptight and arrogant smart-ass." Score.

"You just lost your bet. I have been drunk once or twice, but in better company." Smirk. Score.

Groan. An auburn-colored eyebrow rose. "You honestly have been drunk? But, still, I have to see a full body x-ray of you before I believe that you're human." Smirk by the smart chick.

Hey, that's what he liked about her! Quick thinking, smart-assed, dirty-minded…well, the last one he assumed. _ARG_! What was he thinking at all? The doctor had said he was fine (though Kaiba still doubted it). What was wrong with him? A malfunction of his brain system? CPU overloaded? Overworked? Or worse… was he developing some horrible disease?_ Oh no…_

"Rule number eight is to plan time to get to know each other. If your first date really ends up in the cinema, you should invite her for something to drink beforehand or afterwards. Whichever you prefer." Almost bored, she kept on teaching. If only he weren't so damn hot… if she pretended—to herself in this case—to be bored it would hopefully go away: that… that… that… bloody attraction to—_urg_—him.

A nod was the only reply she got. Seto was busy writing and blocking weird thoughts from his mind. With difficulties as statistics prove that males don't possess the ability to do many things at the same time. Even two brains weren't much help.

"And rule number nine? Well, do something that two can do."

His eyebrows shot upwards, almost to the beginning of his hairline, unwillingly. _Two can do, two can do, two can do_… he knew there was something!

Though, she certainly hadn't meant what he was thinking. A shame, _really_, a pity. _Sigh_.

"A stupid rule after all." Serenity added. "The rule is so abstract that it's not really a piece of advice. However, write it down!" She instructed the CEO and finally, saw his facial expression. "AAARRRGGG, I know what you're thinking of…! **_You kinky pervert!_**"

The usually beautiful girl grimaced, making her features appear less beautiful. But who cared? Not Seto. Not anymore. Long ago he had crossed that certain point.

"You have no clue, Wheeler." Now that smirk was disgusting even! Yeah, she had no clue of how much a kinky pervert he really was. He was perverted enough to hope for Serenity to be dirty-minded… if that wasn't evidence for a really, _really_, bestial, kinky pervert.

"No details please, Kaiba." Though, it was tempting to know about his wet dreams. _Hee-hee. _That is _if_ he had any.

Imagine that sexy blue-eyed beast tied up on a huge four poster bed! _Yeah_… **Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump…** it was a heart-quickening thought. Then again, would he struggle or would he just be bored? He was so damn complex! You would think he'd struggle, as he didn't like to be controlled by someone else. But on the other hand he might just yawn and whatever you do with him wouldn't even affect him. _Bloody robot_. _Ah, Serenity, please, stop thinking about it!_

"Well, rule number ten and final rule is to find an activity that won't take longer than a few hours."

_Oh, no. _What had she done? Rule number ten was true but a mistake to mention. The kinky CEO had just confirmed that he was a pervert and she was giving him more ideas. _God please, open up the ground and swallow that dense girl. Who can take it any longer?_ Not that it wouldn't be interesting how long he'd take but… **knock-knock!** Mentally Serenity had just knocked at her own head, begging her brain to set into gear, shutting down all disturbing thoughts.

'_You're simply the best…'_

Ego-freak's cell phone was ringing. _Gladly_._ There seemed to be a God after all. _He had just opened his dirty mouth and was about to comment on rule number ten when Tina was set off to croon and save a certain red-haired girl's ass. _Pooh_. _The geeky CEO was a weirdo if he needed a ring tone to tell him that he was better than all the rest, better than everyone_ and so on. Okay, okay, who else was there to tell him?

Serenity was a good girl. Just good. As good as an angel. _Angel_ good. However, her cell phone's ring tone was Blondie's '_One Way or Another_'! Good? Oh yeah, she was so good.

"Yes…" Kaiba answered his phone.

_Oh, yeah, right, who was daring to call Kaiba at all? Let's listen._

"This is he… yes… no, wait… I'll get him… I'll be there in a few minutes."

Usually Kaiba glared. But now he was frowning when he gazed at his teacher, the girl who sat on his sofa. She frowned as well when she realized that he looked concerned. That made _her_ concerned in the end.

"What's wrong? Is everything okay?" She dared to ask, feeling a bit uneasy.

"Could you wait here for a few minutes?" He asked suddenly when his frown had disappeared. "I need to pick up Mokuba and get him home. It won't take long."

Serenity absentmindedly nodded. This seemed important to Kaiba and as soon as she had given her 'permission', the brown-haired guy was already on his way outside, destination unknown to what was left, or who. The young woman sighed and gazed around. She could wait.

But did she have to be bored? _Hm…no. _

Did she have to respect Kaiba's private space and things? _Uh…yes. _

Her cleverness told her quickly that she could look around a bit but just wasn't allowed to touch anything. Problem solved and so she stood up to her proud five feet and three inches and started wander over to the media center. The huge flat screen TV and the stereo had drawn her attention the moment she had stepped into this room for the first time. But she was even more interested in the long row of DVDs beyond the television and the high tower of CDs next to the stereo.

Satisfying her curiosity, she took in all she could see. _Okay, here we go_. Many films were about Marvel comics like Batman or Spider-Man. Nothing special so far; they were probably even Mokuba's. Then there was a typical row of guy's films, mostly action and ones with fighting. _Jet Li kinda stuff. _She remembered that Kaiba was a good fighter. What he had done to that rare hunter years ago had been impressive. Except that he was a freak seeing as how he'd thrown cards!

_Hey, keep your fingers off my girlfriend or else I'm going to throw my Duel Monsters card at you! _

_In the name of Ra I punish you; fly my card, fly!_

Star Wars was in his DVD collection as well. Serenity wondered if she should tell Kaiba that Joey loved this one as well. He had watched it over a hundred times with Tristan and they'd kept fighting on who would be Han Solo. Joey had once convinced Mai to do her hair like Princess Leia. Just once. Serenity guessed that Mai must have been drunk. She bet Kaiba secretly marveled at Darth Vader. Oh, she could live with being Amidala.

_**Hicks! **What was that? _A small but very unmistakable row of splatter movies! _Urg_! That freak-CEO probably loved to watch people's limbs being cut off! _That was coming close to him._ Serenity could already picture him watching, chanting '_Go, Jason, go_!' _That revolting jerk… **AAAHHH! **_Had she just thought of him as being revolting? Well, screw that! There stood _Pretty Woman_ and _Meet Joe Black_! _How sweet…_

And there was some comedy! American Pie, Galaxy Quest, Zoolander… _Zoolander?_ Well, okay, it was funny. All in all usual stuff. _Errr_…_what was this?_

'Cyber-kitty needs to get fixed.'

_Was that a title or a customer's demand?_ She realized that it was an anime as she pulled out the DVD and turned it to read the backside of the case.

_**EEEK! UUURG! BRRR!** Cough**…**_

In her shock Serenity dropped the DVD and she looked at the fallen object hatefully. _That was an anime porn DVD!_ Why didn't he hide such films like Joey did? (Under his boxer shorts in the third drawer of his commode by the way.) The younger Wheeler carefully picked up the DVD between her index finger and her thumb and placed it neatly back into the row where she had found it. **_FREAK_**. _No wonder no one wanted to be with him._

_Better pay attention to Kaiba's CDs_, the nosey girl decided and darted her eyes to the collection of music which was sorted alphabetically in its tower. Nothing special so far to spot apart from a _Ludacris_ album. Some hip-hop, of which she'd expected the least. Then _Elvis_ – okay, so _this_ was the least Serenity would have expected! Some punk music CDs like Green Day and Good Charlotte, then Linkin Park, one she had too; many albums of _Heather Nova_—whoever that was, as the snooping girl had no clue. _R.E.M., The Wallflowers, Nirvana…_

Marilyn Manson – _everyone had a bad day once in a while. _

Except for the five different soundtracks there was nothing really interesting and Serenity yawned lazily. She walked back to the sofa and sat down. Hell, she was tired. It had been a long day full with studying, homework, housework, Joey ranting about food—and yet she still had to deal with Kaiba. _Just one more day…_

The thought made her feel a bit… strange. The money Serenity would get was really something she should be happy with. She would buy new shoes… _yeah_, _shoes_, she swooned. Again she yawned and decided that she had no point in feeling strange about being done with the blue-eyed hottie that Seto Kaiba was. Oh, why was she so tired? She would just lie down for a few minutes until Kaiba would be back. She had nothing better to do anyway, had she?

Serenity put her head on the pillow and lifted her legs onto the sofa. _Yawn_. _Yeah, this was good… _but a bit cold and she shivered. She pulled at the blanket that lay across the head of the sofa and spread it across her delicate limbs. _Holy Jesus, this was even better. _

Serenity would just close her eyes for a few seconds… _the blanket smelled of Kaiba… oh, closed eyes were sooo good… just one more second… that smell was intoxicating… but good… aaah…_

-

Kaiba entered his office and frowned. Where was his little witch? (**A/N: **I let him search for **_his_** witch on purpose.) He spotted her soon, lying snuggled up in a blanket, which she held close to her face like a baby would hold his favorite teddy bear. Seto sat down on the chair opposite and gazed at Serenity's sleeping form.

_She was beautiful. _

Not like a page-three model or the girls from O.C. California. She was beautiful in a different way. Serenity was small, had perhaps grown a bit since he had first seen her at Battle City, but still not more than five feet three. And her 'equipment' – he almost grinned at the memory of that particular word; she had been well shaped. Considering that she would become very old one day, it wasn't bad to have someone with smaller breasts than Téa Gardner. Yugi would see the point one day.

The red hair on top of Serenity's head could make a man only dream further but surely not turn off like she thought. It was indeed a witch's hair but long and angelic silky. One of those red strands was falling across her face right now and Kaiba knew if dice dude or pencil head could see that here and now, he would have to prevent them from coming onto her. _Too true_.

A few light freckles graced the skin of her face, not too visible but looking quite cheeky. _Hell, she could be Irish. But a cute Irish. _Her nose was small and delicate, matching her rosy pink mouth, with her upper lip that always seemed to be slightly pouting. And her eyes…her eyes were so big that she could express any emotion just by using them and only them. The color did its part as well, changing from dark brown to almost grass green when she was angry.

And when she became angry, it was also probably when she became the most beautiful. Her personality had obviously changed since Battle City, when she had been young and innocent. She was covering up her innocent side now quite well, but it was still there if one looked closer. She could be furious and shy, scheming and lovely, stubborn and smart, brave and frightened.

_Yes, she was beautiful._

Seto couldn't deny it, although he wouldn't voice it out loud. _The mutt's best part. _Funny, as sometimes Seto thought of his own sibling being _his_ best part. So even though Serenity was definitely not perfect, she was a real beauty. Like Seto's mom had been. He would have never thought that he'd meet someone who he even dared to compare with his mom. Who compared a girl to his mom anyway?The thing was that Seto had only known his real mom as she had been young before she died and God help him, but his mom had been a real beauty.

Serenity turned onto her back in her sleep and softly mumbled in a low voice, "Kaiba…"

_Hey! She was awake! _She _had to_ be awake if she recognized him! Kaiba stood to his full height and bent over her, supporting himself with his hand on the back of the sofa. She didn't seem to be awake. _But she had to be! _She had said his name; ergo she had realized he was back. _That could only mean she was pretending!_

If only he knew…

Because Serenity was having this particular dream, again!

"_Hey beautiful, would you give me that dance?"_

"_Of course, Seto."_

"_I was wondering if we might go out next Thursday. I would like to invite you for a picnic in the park."_

"_I'd love to!"_

"_Serenity?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_I have to make a confession."_

"_Tell me, Seto."_

"Eh, Wheeler, I know you're awake! Make yourself useful!" His deep, raspy voice called out to her as Kaiba glared down at the 'pretender'.

_HUH_? _What_? Serenity's eyes flew open and she stared into two cold cerulean eyes. The man they belonged to was so damn close that the instant she saw him above her, she was frightened. _ALERT! Help! GO AWAY! GO AWAY! Rape! Rape! Help! ALERT!_

"**SSSCCCCCRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"**

_What the hell?_ Kaiba instinctively covered his ears when Serenity started to scream like a dozen of sirens! _What was her problem? _Startled for once in his entire life Seto stumbled backwards, hitting the table in response, frighteningly turning left, right, left right, then backing up against the chair! A low but determined growl built inside of the annoyed CEO.

"WILL YOU FUCKING SHUT UP, WHEELER? I'M GOING DEAF! STOP SCREAMING!" Luckily, his voice was louder than hers, but his throat felt sore and hoarse for the first time. --- _Voice limit approached. ---_

The siren stopped making noise and pulled herself up into a sitting position, cradling the blanket even closer to her body as if it could protect her. Like a scared cat she gazed at Kaiba but seeing that he was looking at her as if she was insane, the girl simply glared.

"What the hell were you doing above me? You… you… you freak!"

"I'M NOT A FREAK!" She was beautifully insane, yes, right. "I was just checking if you were awake."

"Checking, huh? Then tell me how! By raping me?" She growled at him hatefully.

"Raping? You must be totally out of your mind. I wouldn't touch you even if my life depended on it! I'd rather die!" The blue-eyed king of snapping shot back at her.

"Then what were you doing above me?"

"I've already told you that I was checking if you were awake. You were saying my name! Why are you pretending to be asleep at all?"

_His name? In her sleep? Shit. The bloody dream she had… **uh-oh.** No, no, no, no, no…._

The door burst open so suddenly that both of them flinched, only to see a very exhausted but also concerned Mokuba standing there like a man from the fire department expecting Kaiba's office to burn down.

"What's wrong? I heard someone scream." The boy glanced from his brother to the girl.

"Nothing's wrong!" Kaiba snapped at his brother. "Go back to your room. You're grounded, remember?"

"Wha—" Mokuba instantly pouted. "I know that but it doesn't mean that I'm not allowed to go around the house, does it?"

"It does," Kaiba said stubbornly and crossed his arms, very pissed off. Serenity had no clue why.

"I just wanted to help. Are you still mad at me, Seto?" _Oh, Mokuba looked so cute when he was sad._

"Very. We don't need help." _Oh and Kaiba looked so… no, was so damn cruel to his own sibling!_

"What's wrong with you two? Why's your brother mad at you?" The better option was to ask the easy-going Kaiba and so Serenity directed her eyes toward him.

"Uh… Seto's mad at me because I've got a tongue piercing."

"Really? Cool." The girl shot up from the sofa and quickly walked to the teen, eager to satisfy her curiosity about his new attachment. "Did it hurt?"

Mokuba grinned at the high amount of interest she was showing. "When the needle went through my flesh, yes, that hurt but only a little. I can't even feel that it's there anymore. See?" And he stuck out his tongue, which Serenity inspected closely.

Kaiba watched with anger. _That boy! Tsk._

"And that's why you're angry at him?" She couldn't help her motherly—or sisterly—feeling towards Mokuba.

"That and the fact that he fainted because of that bloody stick of metal in his mouth!"

"I didn't faint!" The raven-haired teen defended himself but added sheepishly, "I was just feeling a bit nauseous."

"Your friend what's his name called me, panicking that you were wincing like a puppy on the ground, calling for emergency and begging Ra to stop injecting drugs into you!" Kaiba had a knowing look upon his smug face. "What do you think I'd do? Pick you up and mother you for being such an idiot? Last I checked you're still not of age and therefore would have needed my permission to do such thing. You're grounded and that's final."

"But you would have said no anyway." _God, that boy could pout_—and melt a girl's heart with that. "Or would you have allowed me to do that?" A slight hope built in the boy.

"No." _Bang_. The boy's hopes were crushed.

"See, Serenity? I had no choice but to do that without his permission. He just can't stand piercings and that's why he's so angry at me now!" Mokuba shoved out his bottom lip at Seto but his glare didn't falter. "Serenity likes it. Right Serenity?"

Okay, that wasn't quite fair now. He was pulling the girl into their fight. Serenity was out of words. True, she thought it was looking cool but Kaiba would snap her neck if she admitted that.

"I… well… I think it's nice but your brother's right." The safe side was to tell them both what they wanted to hear. "Mokuba, you are not an adult and should have at least told your brother what you where planning to do. I bet he would have given you permission."

"Over my dead body I would," Kaiba stated simply. _Stubborn bastard._

"There! He wouldn't!" Mokuba cried out helplessly.

"Oh, c'mon, I'm sure he would. He's just sulking now, understandably. He's offended and angry that you haven't told him at all. He had to hear it from a phone call from your friend, telling him that you had fainted. What do you think you would have done if your brother hadn't trusted you and you needed to pick him up somewhere in pain?"

Mokuba was silent.

Kaiba was impressed. That girl was the psychological type. He should be careful in the future.

"I'm sorry, Seto," the boy began, and giving the puppy-eyes look to his older brother. "I should have told you at least."

_Damn_. Now he had him. Seto turned away. He couldn't stand up against that look! "S'okay."

"Really? Thank you so much, big brother!" Mokuba happily smiled. "Am I still grounded?"

"Yes." No reasoning about that.

"For one whole year?" The boy's voice sounded suddenly high-pitched.

"Well, one week should do." The brunette grumpily replied to his brother's luck.

"Thank you, Seto." The other sibling smiled, relieved and happy before he turned to Serenity, only mouthing the words 'thank you' as well. He then disappeared through the door, leaving 'the adults' on their own.

With a stressed sigh Kaiba let his body plop onto the sofa. "Sometimes I think I've done the wrong thing considering his wealth. I should have taken care of it so he'd have gone into a real family with a mother and a father, maybe another sibling…" His voice trailed off.

Usually Mr. Perfect kept his thoughts all to himself. Just in the irritation of the moment he let it slip that he indeed—he, Seto Kaiba! —had doubts about his decision when they had been orphans. God, Serenity felt uneasy with that. But Kaiba felt it even more.

"Don't say that. How old had you been then? Ten? Twelve? You did what you thought was right and Mokuba, hell; he's grown into a smart, good-looking, charming, friendly and very down to earth person. I never thought I'd say this, but you can be proud of yourself for raising him the way you did." She sighed when she flopped down next to the CEO who sent her a lazy smirk—though a grateful one.

"Then why doesn't he just do what he's told to?" Kaiba shrugged helplessly, more to himself than the girl.

"He's sixteen," Serenity easily answered the CEO's question. "He's just a normal sixteen year-old… rebel. So let him rebel. At least you could be sure he'd settle down some day. Kids who never rebelled against their parents might have more difficulties in settling down one day. They'll always rebel inside. Somehow." Like Joey. He had been a rebel ever since he separated from their father. From then on he was a child again. Still is. But at least one who had settled down.

"Or kids who weren't allowed to rebel." The blue-eyed man mumbled before his gaze narrowed. He had to focus his mind on other things. Mokuba was taken care of. Now it was Seto-time. "Well, we should start from where we left off, don't you think?"

_Where? When she had accused him for rape? God, no! Please, no! Don't let him even remember._ _That dream… and well… Kaiba… and now… _Serenity was slightly panicking but covered it up with a nervous smile.

"I've written down your ten rules. Anything else I need to know?" He raised his eyebrows at the strangely smiling girl. PMS, he guessed.

"Oh… uh, no. Well, yes. Yes! I wanted to talk with you about meeting points." Relieved but still nervous, Serenity desperately would have loved to wipe her forehead. Under the stare of Seto Kaiba, she decided against it.

"Meeting points? Okay. There you go." He was all ears already. On your mark. Get set. Ready. Teach.

"The museum is a great place to meet. You might talk about inspiration while casually walking through the halls. It's really a nice place to get to know each other and experience the other's taste in arts. An invitation there won't even be expensive." Serenity couldn't help her dreamy expression. That was the date of her dreams.

_Well, then she should take Ross Gellar from 'Friends.'_

"Not a good idea, not at all." Kaiba, as usual, crossed his arms. "I've already told you I'm not really into art and the only inspiration of mine I could tell her about would be my new super-CPU in the main server. However, screw the museum. I try to avoid that place anyway in order to avoid any Ishtar. All of them are freaks—totally cracked-up psychos."

_Said the psycho himself._ Serenity suppressed a snort. "I kind of like Ishizu."

"She's completely ga-ga." He supported his choice of words by waving a hand in front of his face. "All that crap about me and facing my destiny, blah blah. She should save it, maybe for her kids one day, the poor brats. Only I am in charge of my destiny."

"How would you know? Maybe there is indeed something like destiny—"

"How I know? Because I'm proving it right now. I don't face staying alone for the rest of my life if that was planned to be 'my destiny'. I hired you instead to teach me to do better." His point was already proven, so he stopped.

_He was kind of right. _

_Kind of. _

_Damn, he was! _

"Okay, you're going to like the next possibility of a meeting point. Amusement parks!" She exclaimed as if she were telling a horde of ten-year-olds. "It should be fun and has the effect of feeling young and carefree. That is, if you can see past sticky fingers from all kinds of sweets and roller coaster rides that make you feel utterly sick until you would give anything for an aspirin! Sounds like fun to me, but for you… well." The hazel-eyed girl doubted that there would be a carefree side of Kaiba at all. _Apart from 'cyber-kitty,' that was._

"At least I might have a chance to impress the girl. I mean who owns his own amusement park? And you say I shouldn't impress with money." Sly ass.

"She could be impressed by you by having fun with you there, not by the point that you _own_ that thing." The red head shook in misunderstanding but kept concentrating on the task of teaching. "You could also go simply for a walk. Maybe in the park or the zoo, or the botanical garden's nice as well. It's cheap, entertaining, and free of any stress. Plus you can hold hands." She grinned.

Then the grin faltered. _What would he have to add now?_

"Why not? Well, maybe because I've got hay fever, so no botanical garden. The park's okay, just not in June and July. The zoo would be a problem again. I'm allergic to animal hairs as well." The park was nice from August to May, wasn't it? Unfortunately it was June and he was pressured with time. He wanted to get a girlfriend quickly.

There she was: Serenity Wheeler, who had thought of Kaiba as being almost a superhero with a body of steel, fighting skills to the maximum and not a single visible weakness. Yet here he was, allergic to plants! _Kryptonite was green as well, wasn't it?_

"Unfortunately for you, activities outside are always good: sport events, concerts, picnics and stuff." _Shit_, there went her dream… then again, luckily it went. _Bye-bye_. "Maybe you could go with the indoor activities as well. Inline-skating or watch a match of ice hockey."

"Concerts don't have to be open-air as well," he added, slowly becoming eager to get his lesson over with.

"Right. I just have some advice on where you shouldn't take a girl on your first date." She had to be sure he knew about these points as well. Kaiba was unpredictable. "Never go to weddings."

"Clear. I don't even know someone who's going to marry."

_Don't mention Joey! Don't mention Joey! Don't mention Joey!_

Enough about the inside of Serenity's brain.

"Never go to New Year's Eve parties. People get drunk and stuff. Not as a first date, no. Don't meet on Valentine's Day. That's too much for a start. Last but not least, avoid Christmas dinners. You don't want to have her parents around all the time on your first date, do you?"

"Certainly not." The CEO snorted slightly, a bit disgusted even. "But I could invite her to my very own Christmas dinner. I don't have parents fussing around."

"You've got a precocious younger brother. That's almost as bad."

"You're right."

"I know."

Serenity had to smile. _Kaiba could be easy-going. Just rarely. But he was nice. Ah, yes, he kind of was. And hot. Grrr. _

_'One way or another I'm gonna find you, I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha…"_

Kaiba just loathed cell phones at times.

The red-head's cell phone just crooned with blaring 80's music and Serenity bit her bottom lip the instant she was startled by the noise. Quickly she fished inside of her purse to reveal the small black item. Pressing the green button she answered the call out of breath.

"Hello?"

_Who was calling dear Wheelerette AT WORK? It was big fat CEO-time!_

"Oh, I totally forgot the time, Joey. I'm sorry. I kind of fell asleep and then… what? NO! I just… Kaiba went to pick up Mokuba and I was alone… no, I'm sure he didn't… well… I… okay… Give me half an hour… see you then… bye!" Shutting down the phone, she sheepishly gazed at nothing in particular, avoiding Kaiba's not very decent stare.

"What did the mutt want?"

"I'm kinda late, sorry. Do you know what time it is?" She suddenly seemed in a hurry.

Kaiba lazily glanced at his wristwatch. "Half past ten."

"Oh no." The girl's shoulders visibly sank, as well as her head. She thoughtfully chewed on the fingernail of her thumb.

That was until Kaiba slapped her hand away from her mouth.

"Don't do that. It's not very ladylike." He glared with such an unfamiliar expression that Serenity couldn't keep up her own glare in response. It faltered to a frown. "What's your problem anyway?"

"My problem is… I…" It was embarrassing to tell him. He didn't care, she knew it. It was her problem and she certainly didn't need anyone to tell her exactly that! "Well, usually I take the bus downtown at ten fifteen but today, you see, it's half past ten and I'll have to wait until the next one."

"Okay." _Something seemed wrong about this. _Kaiba could smell it. "And when's the next bus going downtown exactly?"

"Um… quarter to twelve," she replied in low voice and grabbed her purse. "It's just that I promised Joey to help him with something and he won't be too happy if I come home at midnight. I'll just have to see if there's a bus line that drives to the bus station and from there it shouldn't be a problem to get home."

"But you have no clue when some bus will drive to the station, am I correct?"

"Yes, but—"

"You're just going to go down there to that bus stop and hope you'll be lucky to catch some bus to take you somewhere else instead of home in hope that _from there_ you'll be lucky _again_ to catch another one that'll finally bring you home, right?"

"Yes, but—"

"You don't even consider that you might end up even later at home than if you simply wait for the quarter to twelve bus. Correct?"

_Groan_. Very annoyed groan. "Yes, now can I say something?"

"Sure."

"I might end up at home later than usual, but it's a chance and I really need to get home as fast as I can. Okay?" Her patience was short from all his stupid lectures and questions.

"Yes, I understand. Then why don't you ask me to drive you home?"

"I…" _But, this was Kaiba! He would have… but… why? _Hell, she was confused. And out of words.

"You're just a coward like my brother. Now, get your things." With that Kaiba had already snatched his keys and started walking towards the door.

"Thank you." Serenity said quietly, cursing herself. She was a coward. She had scolded Mokuba for not telling his brother anything, not trusting him, not being honest to him and now, she didn't even dare to ask him a bloody easy question.

_Too stupid._

They rode home in silence. Ten minutes went by and Serenity gazed at the apartment building she lived in. _And it was so cozy in the sports seats._ Sigh.

"Don't you have a driver's license?"

_Huh?_ Serenity had almost forgotten that Kaiba was indeed there. "I have one but… I can't afford a car yet. I use to borrow Joey's but he needs it in the evenings."

"I'm surprised he knows where you've spent the last evenings at all."

"I haven't told him what we do exactly." She grinned.

"What have you told him?" He quirked a suspicious eyebrow.

"That I'm tutoring you in art. Joey was so proud; he literally shoved me out the door to go to your place. Plus I told him about the money."

"Buy a car." He smirked that asshole smirk but Serenity couldn't help her smile in response. _The asshole smirk was nice, too._

"Good night, Kaiba. And thanks again for the ride. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Serenity?" _Damn, he forgot to call her by her last name! _

"Yes?"

"I'm glad you haven't told your brother about the true reason of our arrangement. You know, I'm quite… a bit… um…"

_Too proud to let a mutt know?_

_Damn, he was cute when he was out of words. _

"I know."

Serenity slammed the door shut and walked up to the building. Meanwhile, Kaiba didn't hesitate to speed off. _She knew_._ That was the scariest part of her._

-

End of chapter seven.


	8. Final Day Part I

_Thanks to my beta._

_Thanks to all the reviewers! _

_Chapter eight is on. This is dark humor—I tell you. And Mokie sounds like a pervert._

_Sangha_

_Reviews and questions on Chapter seven:_

_**To Pippin**: _I'm glad that you like it. Well, like I mentioned at the beginning of chapter one, Kaiba's OOC—off original character—normally he probably wouldn't need anyone. That's at least what he would tell. What he might think no one knows. It's fiction after all and I just wanted a lonely and desperate Seto If Joey is getting married? I left it open for people to hope for XD (you'll see soon).

**_To Tigresita_**: Hello back to Peru! I'm not English (nor American), too. I'm German but I'll spare you my original language… I'm happy that you like my story.

**_To Flowerperson_**: Mokie's a tough one—he lives with Seto—he easily shrugs off the pain of a tongue piercing. The idea of cyber-kitty's an easy calculation. Lara Croft + Robocop + a normal cat + Seto Kaiba's SuperCPU Cyber-kitty! LOL Just perfect for Mr. CEO.

**_To Slythervixen_**: Everything what'll happen is based on what Ms. Wheeler teaches her student… this is the riddle about the first kiss!

**_To all the other reviewers_**: Thanks a lot, especially my very faithful ones—you know who you are!

-

**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

-

Chapter Eight

-

"**Final Day – Part I"**

-

Serenity pressed the button for the bell and sighed. It was the last time she had to come to Kaiba. Disappointment went throughout her soul, even though he was definitely an ass—not evil or cruel, but an ass. He was stiff, uptight and cold. But he was a guy—an extremely hot example of the male populaton, even—that she had fallen for.

_Had she? Bad, Serenity, bad_. _Well, she liked him._

Had it been for the fact that he had told her that she was sweet and beautiful, or for the glimpse of his soul he had shown her lately—she had no clue. But she knew damn well that she wanted more of Seto Kaiba.

_Great—she was falling for the only guy in the world who didn't see her as a beauty queen but despised her for being a Wheeler. _

And what did he want? A woman—plain and simple—who'd fall for his freshly learnt knowledge and not for him. Serenity probably was the only one who truly knew him. At least she knew him better than any other girl. She could accept him the way he was. She wanted that dumb nut, who wasn't capable of everything—like chatting up girls and flirting. She wanted the one who didn't care; who told her what he believed in; who wasn't hypocritical but honest; who was simply anything but Seto Kaiba.

_Damn_, she should tell him that he would make a hypocrite out himself if he were going to tell a poor female victim something he didn't mean, but thought was right. God, Serenity's mind was spinning. Hadn't she told him to do so? Wasn't _she_ the hypocrite? She had taught him all she knew—was it even right? Who was she to know what was right or wrong?

_Why had she agreed to tutor Kaiba in 'Flirting' again?_

_Money. _

Serenity didn't give a shit about the whole sum if—yeah, right, the if-sentence—if Kaiba felt the same as she. Okay, last day—last chance to _make_ him. It wouldn't hurt to try._ Test him somehow… _

"Ms. Wheeler, good evening. Mr. Kaiba's awaiting you in the living room. Please, if you would follow me."

The auburn-haired girl went after the man clad in a dark suit. She had seen him once on the blimp—hadn't he introduced the challengers? He was one of Kaiba's right hand men, that much she knew.

_Hello, mister, what is it like to work for Mr. Kaiba?  
_"_It is like—Mr. Kaiba, Mr. Kaiba, I located Obelisk the Tormentor!"_

_Or maybe…_

_Miss Wheeler, what is it like to work for Mr. Kaiba?  
__Well, genius boy is a miserable loser when it comes to women! _

_He-he. Suppress the giggles, girl! _Mr. Kaiba was… uh…_ currently gazing at her over his_ _shoulder while he was standing in front of the big windows. _Hands in his pockets, casually clad in jeans and a black t-shirt—_hell, he's hot_! _Damn_. She might ask herself if this was real. He wasn't even glaring. Was today something special? _His birthday maybe?_ No, that was in October as he had told her.

"Ah… Wheeler. I hope you're ready for our final day." A smirk, of course, as if he wasn't able to keep from smirking just for one day. _Yugi wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance in a smirking battle! _

"Kaiba." Serenity returned the smirk. "If you are."

"I am as ready as ever." He walked slowly to the sofa and sat down on it.

_Okay. Step one. _Serenity chose to sit next to him and smiled, batting her eyelashes a bit. _Works 99 percent of the time. _"I was thinking we should talk about the actual rendezvous a bit. Do you think you'd be ready for something like this?"

"Don't waste time with questions, Wheeler. Just tell me." Something seemed different about her today. Seto just couldn't put his finger on. She was being strangely nice, putting a melodious tone in her voice—_scary, really scary._

"Well, for the rendezvous you should have an emergency backpack."

"Are you kidding me? Don't tell me to go with a first-aid kit."

"I thought that's what's in your silver briefcase, is it not?" The girl mocked surprise and pretended to be naïve. It was an attempt to make him see how silly he always looked, walking around with that huge briefcase. She held up her hand to stop him as he took a deep breath in response.

"You think you're funny, Wheeler," he chuckled coldly. "Cut the crap and tell me about your oh-so-important emergency backpack."

_God, he sure is short-tempered today. But he's also being oddly easy-going and hasn't made further comments, as well as being a bit pushy… strange._ "Okay, the emergency backpack should include plaster, some aspirin, mints, a needle and thread…"

"Needle and thread? Do I look like a dressmaker?"

"If the unthinkable should happen and the button of your pants fell off, I'm sure you'd still look cute in just your boxers." That would surely be a very funny situation as well. Serenity would laugh her own pants off—

That'd be quite a sight.

"You wish." Kaiba smirked with some kind of sympathy. He was sure many people would like to see that but it was out of the question. The president of Kaiba Corp. without his pants on in public was a very demanded photo at the press—unfortunately they had none!

Serenity blinked. Had he seen through her? _You wish? She wishes? **Oh God, oh God, oh God**… _

"Nothing I wish!" _Oops_. She hadn't meant to hiss at him.

_There it was again--the fiery demon that was lurking inside of the oh-so-innocent looking girl. _Yeah, Kaiba wasn't easy to fool—he was too smart. "O-kay."

_Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…_ Maybe she shouldn't even picture him in his boxers. His naked torso had sent her into some sort of daze of bliss—what could the rest of his body do? She would just think of something disturbing. _Solomon Moto, Solomon Moto, Solomon Moto…_

Worked wonders.

"Okay, a little checklist before going to a rendezvous. Write this down!" Serenity ordered him and Kaiba immediately obeyed. _How sweet… Arg! __Solomon Moto! Solomon Moto! **Damn it! Solomon Moto once again!**_ "Have you showered?" She counted with the help of her fingers. "Hair washed? Have you washed you ears? And that means inside, outside and behind!"

"You are weird, Wheeler, really." Seto suddenly looked up from his paper and his blue eyes blazed with amusement from under his chestnut bangs.

The hazel-eyed girl looked at him puzzled, then smiled. _Yes, to tell him to wash his ears was weird._ But he was amused! _That was good, wasn't it?_ "I mean it. Be sure that you've brushed your teeth as well, that you've cut your fingernails and that you're shaved. Don't forget some deodorant, fresh clothes and…" she paused dramatically, then grinned. "Fresh underwear!"

"I get the picture: you don't have the best opinion of my body hygiene. But thanks anyway for the checklist." There was a bit of an undertone to his voice, yet he seemed amused.

"There's another checklist I've got for you."

Now he looked quite uncertain. "And that is…"

"Make sure you know where to go. No more questioning about the place when you've already met the girl. That's annoying. Be sure to know how to get there! The best is to drive yourself. Make sure you've got enough gas. An unplanned stop because of no more fuel would screw the whole thing. Then make sure to know how much expense the whole thing would cost. Check that you've got enough money with you. And take another fifty bucks for emergencies. You'll never know. Last but not least, be sure that your watch works precisely. We don't want you to come too late, do we?" Serenity blew at the auburn strand of hair that had fallen into her face. She had told him everything she could think of and that was quite a lot after all. With every passing minute of teaching Kaiba and telling him what mattered, the end of their arrangement was coming closer.

Serenity sighed.

"Quite a lot." Kaiba hadn't missed her sigh. "To be honest I wouldn't have thought you could tell me that much about flirting, asking women out and so on. You know, you really should think about becoming a schoolteacher or something similar."

Serenity wryly smiled. "Maybe." _Maybe not._ She could if she wanted to. She might teach history and art but she doubted that every student would be so interesting, entertaining, intoxicating, hot… **_Damn it! Solomon Moto!_**

"Make a last list that you're going to check just before your rendezvous." She rubbed her forehead in order to concentrate on teaching. "Check your breath." Again she decided to support her statements visually by counting with her fingers. "Teeth. Wallet. Clothes. Babysitter…"

Kaiba suddenly coughed. "I don't think I need a babysitter."

"Well," Serenity rolled her eyes thoughtfully upward. "Maybe not you, Kaiba. What about your brother?"

_Hey cheeky witch! _Kaiba's blue eyes narrowed slightly. She was walking on thin ice sometimes; that was for sure and Seto saved it in the back of his mind, always the revenge-seeking type of human being!

"You know, I should be thankful if Mokuba would ever stay at home at all—whether with or without a babysitter. Go on with the checklist." He smiled rather lethally.

_**Eep. **_

"Okay." The girl tried an innocent grin but failed miserably. "Check your calendar once again if it's indeed the day of your rendezvous. Then make sure to have the telephone number of the girl you want to meet, as well as her address and tickets if you're going to need some."

"Noted." The brunette had written down all the info he had gotten. "That's it?"

"Yeah…um." Serenity frowned. "I want to talk about a few other things as well. One is the question of who is going to pay. I know you're sickeningly rich, Kaiba, that's why I'd normally say you should pay—one way or the other. _But_, thing is, in truth there are two rules."

"Sickeningly rich, huh?" He turned his gaze to the small girl next to him. "Funny, last time I checked I was in perfect health. It's scary but sometimes it seems like there's a reason why health rhymes with wealth." His grin grew wider at his smart-assed remark.

Serenity pressed her lips together in an attempt not to scream at him what an arrogant jerk he was. The urge to vomit rose inside of her. God, yes, she envied him for his tons and even more tons of million dollars! It was sickening after all when one had to save every little cent just to attend college, buy food, rent an apartment, etc. And there he was, the great and mighty Seto Kaiba, who was joking so stupidly, arrogantly, pompously, and rudely about his damn wealth.

_Yes, this was sickening! _

She wished she could smack her hand across his face so hard that you could hear it in Europe! Instead she just attacked him mentally, her hazel eyes drawn into tiny slits with burning hatred for the CEO. _This hurt!_ Now that she liked him—kinda—it hurt when he was being the jerk he usually was. _Great, just great!_

"Think positive, Wheeler." Seto reached out to touch her shoulder supportively—or whatever he actually was trying to do from Serenity's point of view. Her eyes widened at the sudden contact and the bastard next to her grinned. "After this you'll own at least 700 dollars cash. _C. A. S. H._ And you deserve it."

Seto drew his hand from her shoulder when she stared at him somehow in a mixture of anger, daze and confusion. Her cheeks had a slight purple tone and Seto suspected she was angry. _Daft chicken_.

Anyway, you could call the guy clueless.

_And she deserved the bloody money!_ Gritting her teeth, she decided to drop it. _Money? All this man is concerned with is money. And finding a woman who wants to go out with him—whether for his money or not. Not that he cares. Poor, poor bastard. _Serenity inhaled deeply and went on with her actual task. "Are we going to discuss the payment again or do you want to hear the two rules?"

"Spill."

"Rule number one is, that whoever invites is going to pay. Quite simple, isn't it? But it also means that the one who invites knows the whole rendezvous' expense and has the right budget for that."

"Clear." Kaiba said and gave a nod to urge her to continue.

"Rule number two says that the other person offers at least to pay their part by themselves. They don't have to, though. Strictly no discussing about who pays in the end. The other person's offer should be seen as a question of politeness; it should be declined and the other person should not insist any further. Instead the other person might offer to pay at the next occasion."

"It makes sense," he replied monotonously. "But what if she offers to pay for a next date and then won't even meet me again? Women are like that."

_Oh, is the little CEO-boy bitter? A bit, maybe? **Gah!** Shuddup! What did he know about women at all? _Serenity raised a rather pitiful eyebrow at the tall brunette. "There's just no guarantee. Take it or leave it."

Seto opened his mouth to reply but was cut off when there was a knock on the door before his brother's head peered inside the room. A hand covered the boy's blue-gray eyes but he gazed through the gap between his fingers anyway, which he had left on purpose.

"Everybody dressed?" Mokuba snickered in a cheerful tone but stopped, realizing that his big brother was about to reply with whatever amount of sharp words he could come up with. Quickly he drew his gaze to the girl and continued talking. "Eh, Serenity, I gotta question. Since you're teaching Seto how to find a woman, I was thinking you could help me with something."

Kaiba leaned back into the sofa and grunted.

"Well, what is it?" Serenity was curious what a teenager like Mokuba could want. Hopefully his ice cube of an older brother had had _'the_ talk' with him already!

"How far would you go on a first date?" Mokuba bluntly asked and slid on the armrest of the sofa in a sitting position next to the slightly older girl.

Serenity's eyes widened in surprise and a blush rose on her cheeks! _Kaibas were all the same! Ever so straightforward, direct… simply blunt. _She exhaled but no word came out of her mouth.

"I mean, Serenity, I'm going to meet someone—soon—and I just want to know how far can I go without scaring her off?"

"Good question, Mokuba." Kaiba suddenly barged in and leaned forward again, paying more attention to their little conversation now.

Serenity simply gawked at Kaiba, then Mokuba, again at Kaiba, then back to Mokuba. _How could they? Men were such pigs! As if that was important! _

"Serenity?" Mokuba looked at the girl intensely and made big, concerned eyes.

"Uh…is the girl important to you? Then hold back, boy!" She screeched suddenly in an outburst of authority and stomped her small foot on the ground.

"Well, she kinda is; that's why I desperately need to go out with her, kiss her, hold hands with her… God, I want to touch her, show her how much she means to me, carry her in my arms if it has to be! And I want to…"

"Mokuba!"

"…that it hurts! And after that I make her…"

"Mokuba!"

"…again! Cause I so want to…"

"MOKUBA!" Finally the older Kaiba had made his little brother stop babbling. Seto glared at him, annoyed at his behavior—_normally he wasn't that… extreme_. "Too many details."

"Oh." The boy shifted his gaze at Serenity. "Is that bad?"

The girl sighed and smiled with sympathy. "No, not bad, you're just in love, I suppose. Don't go too far, Mokuba. If she means that much to you, you'll have plenty of time to experience all the other things with each other later. Enjoy the time, taking slow steps."

The teenager thought for a moment, shifted off the armrest and gazed at Serenity quite seriously.

"Thanks. I guess you're right. I just hope I can hold her back…" He wiggled his eyebrows and with a last cheeky grin stormed out of the room, slamming the door so hard that it left the remaining adults frightened to their bones.

Serenity shifted her hazel-eyed look at Kaiba who shrugged quite helplessly. "The girls want him. What can I do about it?"

"I just hope you've talked to him about the birds and the bees." She sighed, concerned but Kaiba smirked, amused.

"He knows pretty well how to make the flower bloom, yes."

Suddenly, he laughed.

It wasn't that cold laughter he usually gave; it was different. Softer. Closer to a chuckle. But he laughed, grinning even. Was he making fun of her? _Yes, the birds and the bees example was funny but this was serious after all, wasn't it?_ Strangely, she had to laugh as well._ Ha-ha._

But his laughter faded quickly. _A pity, really._ "We should go on with the lesson."

"Uh…okay." Serenity couldn't believe Kaiba actually had a sense of humor, even if it concerned gardening—_she was way funnier_. "Topic: Opening the talk. We shall talk about what to say on a first date. Questions in order to break the ice are necessary at the beginning."

Breaking the ice sounded so damn perfect in connection with Seto Kaiba—why was that again? 

"I'll just give you some examples, okay? You might ask 'what did you do today?' Simple and easy. Not offensive in any way, just nice."

"But—" Kaiba was about to ask something when Serenity cut him off.

"Don't you dare answer with 'it's not any of your business'. Just tell her something that isn't top secret."

Kaiba groaned.

Serenity continued. "You might ask her about her favorite book or talk about your favorite movie or TV-show." That was a good example. Serenity mentally patted herself on the shoulder. _Wait a second_… "Just don't mention '_Cyber-kitty_,' " she added bleakly.

Kaiba seemed to have stopped in his tracks. No movement. No noise. Not even breathing. Slowly but deathly he turned to gaze at her. Then he smirked, which never meant any good as far as Serenity could remember. _Oh. My. God._

"Were you snooping?" His voice was calm—too calm.

"Err—I was looking a-around a bit while you were pi-picking up Mokuba yesterday. But, I-I didn't touch anything!" _Please don't kill me_, she added mentally.

Then, he grinned. _Why? No clue_. "You deserve punishment, little Serenity."

Kaiba reached out to lift her chin with two fingers, an evil smirk crossing his feature. _Okay, the end was coming. Goodbye world, goodbye family and friends, goodbye new shoes…_ Serenity swallowed visibly and thought of something to say, but no words would form from out of her mouth.

"I know what you deserve." His smirk grew even more evil. "To watch the whole movie!"

"WHAT?" Suddenly she found her voice, _yippie_, shaking her head repeatedly. "No… I would never… ever…watch _that_!" She spat the last word like it was poisoned.

And Kaiba? He laughed. Coldly and evilly the way he normally did. _Bastard_.

"You sick-minded jerk! What are you laughing at, huh? You are more of a freak than I even thought was possible!" She hissed, disgusted by the idea of watching anime porn.

"I'd even lend it to you." He couldn't even stop laughing—_this was way too funny_.

"ARG! No! Don't you get it? I'm not a pervert like you are!" The accusing finger pointed at Kaiba like the judgment of Mr. Pharaoh in his good old days.

Kaiba laughed even harder, holding his hands to his belly. "You are funny…"

"Funny? I…" She growled like her brother when he met Kaiba. "I dare you…"

Then Seto stopped and looked at her with a smirk. "Oh, I'm so scared. Calm down, Wheeler. That's for snooping in my things."

"I wasn't snooping! Just…"

"Just?" He brought his face close to hers, challenging her with his icy blue gaze.

The girl swallowed. _Did he smell of cinnamon?_ God, you would think he worked in a bakery shop. He smelled of either fresh coffee or cinnamon. Maybe on Sundays he smelled of fresh cookies. _Damn that man! _She was hungry!

"Never mind. Can we go on with the lesson?" Suddenly Serenity turned away, another blush rising on her cheeks. She hated her reaction to Kaiba. She truly did.

Kaiba chuckled and mumbled, "chicken."

She probably was. With him she was. God, it was making her cringe inside. She would bite his head off, if only… if only she hadn't developed some strange attraction to him. _Freaky_.

"Where were we?" Serenity muttered, dropping her gaze.

"Breaking the ice," he replied, studying her. _Since when did she back away like this?_ Usually she fought back fiercely_. What was wrong with her?_ Had he done something to upset her? _Now this thought was weird. _But really, he meant it. He had had no intention of upsetting her. It had been fun and usually she wasn't offended that quickly. _Strange_.

"Okay, let's go on with good topics to talk about." Her voice had completely lost its usually melodious tone. It was so monotonous that Kaiba hated himself a bit. _It was his fault, wasn't it?_ "Try to build a comfortable talking atmosphere with superficial topics, where both of you can relax and enjoy yourself."

Kaiba's blue orbs observed Serenity. _What was wrong with her? How could he fix her? He meant, make her normal again. Whatever_. She was different and Seto didn't like it. And if Seto didn't like something he turned into a stubborn little boy who would desperately like to stomp with his foot and scream 'I want ice-cream!'—except that he wanted Serenity back to normal.

"You could even talk about the weather. Don't go with phrases like 'nice weather today'; but you could admit to the girl that you like spending your lunch break walking though the park… barefoot maybe. That'd be sweet and not boring."

"Okay," he said, even though he wanted to say something more like 'I don't have a lunch time and I never go barefoot in any park.' He even forced something like a smile but she just forced another one back. _WHAT HAD HE DONE, DAMNIT? ARG!_

"You might even talk about your meeting point. The place where you go to or where you are at that moment is certainly not a bad topic. Speak positively of the location, the food, music and so on."

"What if I don't even like it?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Then don't mention it. If you don't like the place where you're taking her, then you shouldn't have taken her there." Serenity was a bit annoyed but hey, it was better than thinking about an attraction to the smart-ass CEO of Kaiba Corp.

"If you've got common friends, you might as well talk about them. Don't rant about them, though. But talking about others in a good way builds harmony—though I doubt you would have common friends." She kept going through her list of teaching themes.

"If she's a friend of yours?" He probed carefully, shrugging slightly, trying out Mokuba's method of making puppy eyes for the first time in his entire life. Not that he even realized it! No, no, but he just wanted the normal Wheeler witch back—the one that he liked, _damn it!_

"If you consider me a friend?" Now Serenity was challenging him and Kaiba, well, he liked it. One corner of his mouth twitched, forming into a small smirk.

He crossed his arms in defense. "I might."

She smirked and mocked him. "You might?"

"Well," he shrugged.

That was enough of a reply for Serenity to know he had admitted it. As long as he wasn't denying something, he was clearly admitting it. _And he was cute when he tried making puppy eyes, even if he failed miserably, ending up looking like he'd been smacked in the face with a baseball bat. Sigh. Back to the Solomon Moto mantra!_

Satisfied, she smiled. "Okay, where was I? You could talk about news as well. Or culture, things like theater, movies, concerts, rock stars…" _Damn_. She had a question. Should she dare…? "Um… you might accuse me of snooping again, but who's Heather Nova? I never heard of her before and you've got plenty of her CDs, haven't you?"

"You officially snoop, you _do_ realize that, don't you?" He asked but not in a snapping way. "Heather Nova is a musician who makes rock music, kinda. Well, soft rock, influenced with a bit of indie maybe. Hard to explain. You should listen, then you'll know."

"I'd like to sometime," Serenity smiled and shrugged timidly.

"It's good, you'll see." Kaiba stood up from his sitting position and walked over to the stereo. "I'm going to put on the newest I've got but I'm warning you, it's a bit melancholy," he commented as he put the metallic object into the stereo and pressed the 'play' button on the remote.

Serenity sat and watched. 'Complex' was the only word that swirled over and over again in her mind whenever she was with Kaiba. The guy was simply complex. When you thought he was a pervert, he put on soft-rock music in his stereo. When you thought he was the most arrogant jerk in the world, he suddenly showed a sense of humor. And when you thought he was being a bastard, he tried to lighten up your mood, even if he failed most of the time.

WHY? 

_Was he always like that?_

"We should go on, though. You can listen during 'work,' " he remarked as he joined Serenity on the sofa again.

"Only few topics left, Mr. Kaiba." Serenity grinned at him and chuckled. He was all business but if she didn't take it too seriously, she didn't mind at all. He just was like that. "I guess we need to talk about the taboo topics as well. Topics like… sex."

"Agreed." Simple. No discussion at all.

"That was quick." The girl's hazel eyes furrowed to a slight extend. She frowned. "You don't like talking about this topic, do you?"

Kaiba frowned. "What makes you think that?"

"When I was drunk I asked you if you had ever been with a girl… _physically_. Seeing that you haven't had a girlfriend so far…" she trailed off, feeling a bit ashamed that she had asked such a question at all. _God, she had been drunk but now_… now she was totally sober.

Seto gazed blankly at nothing in particular; then he turned to look at her. _She was right._ But he wasn't a prude. He just had no intention of talking about something like this with his teacher. Why would Serenity Wheeler want to know anyway? It wasn't a secret but still it was none of her business. Not that it would have been a crime to not be a virgin anymore in his age. It was just that _she_ should _not_ know any of this.

The again, he could have a bit of fun with this.

Kaiba leaned down closer to Serenity and said with a smirk, "if you really want to know I guess you'll have to find out."

_Oh my God. Oh dear hallelujah. Holy crap. My gosh! Was he… did he just… offer her sex?_ Serenity's eyes narrowed when the meaning of what he'd said finally dawned on her. _Was he suggesting that he have sex with her? How rude! That abnormal bastard!_ Slowly anger rose inside of her and with that her cheeks started to burn. _In that rude manner of his he could offer his sexual treatment to anyone but not Serenity Wheeler! Jerk! Double jerk! Mega jerk!_

"Well?" Seto had to suppress a snicker that was forming in the back of his throat. _God, she was starting to blush in an awfully crimson color by the look of her cheeks. It had worked. She was so embarrassed!_

If only Kaiba had a clue…

Because meanwhile, Serenity was boiling inside. _That rude jerk would never get a girlfriend that way! Sick-minded double-idiot! How could he? That was more than impolite._ To Serenity it was an insult of the highest degree! _Daft, spoiled CEO-ass. Well? What well?_ She would give him his _well_! _Stuff it up your ass, freak!_

**SMACK!**

Blue eyes widened in shock as Seto's jaw dropped automatically. _Did she just smack me across my cheek? _

Serenity looked at what she had done and realization dawned on her. _Did I just smack him?_ _Oh my God!_ She reached out to cover his cheek with her hand carefully as if she wanted to soothe the red mark left there.

"Kaiba! Oh God… I'm so sorry. I…I didn't mean to… I was angry and then… I'm sorry… deeply sorry…" she stammered but drew her hand back and flinched when he glared at her icily.

_Joseph, gimme the shotgun—I'm gonna shoot my daughter,_ Serenity heard her mother say.

But then Kaiba began to laugh coldly, shaking his head and laughing at what was actually ridiculous. _The small Wheeler chicken had just smacked me with her flat hand! __Ha-ha._

"Ha-ha. Funny, huh?" The hazel-eyed girl chuckled nervously, uneasy. "What's so funny anyway?"

"You," Kaiba replied, controlling his laughter. "You just hit me."

Serenity stared at him. She had no clue what was funny about it but obviously he thought it was funny. _Maybe it was a trick?_ She'd better keep her mouth shut.

"Usually nobody comes even close to hitting me, Wheeler. Because those who try fail. I guess I wasn't expecting this. Funny, huh?" His voice was raspy and cold and Serenity thought she detected a trace of discomfort in his tone.

"I'm sorry." Sheepishly she looked at her lap. "It's just that you insulted me."

"How?" No, that was beyond Kaiba's imagination. He had been a bit mean but he was just teasing her. _Was to indirectly offer sex an insult? _

"You… you know why!" She replied, offended. "You know that I'm not… you know, damn it! You shouldn't suggest things like this!"

_It was an insult because she was still a virgin? Holy Jesus!_ Kaiba would never really understand women. But she was sweet when her innocent side ruled her. Yet, it had caused her to hit him. _Wheelers! Too much of a temper for Kaiba's liking._

"I'm going to go get you some ice for that." She pointed at his red cheek. "Just tell me where the kitchen is."

It was the least she could do, Kaiba decided and mumbled, "out the door, right, the second door."

Serenity quickly stood to her feet and hurried off, trying to find the kitchen as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile Kaiba leaned down. It didn't hurt that much, still he was amazed. That prankster of a girl had just hit him._ **Him!**_ It was really worth a laugh. The thing was, he wasn't even angry with her. A bit offended maybe, his pride hurt as well, but not angry. It both bewildered and shocked him. _Why was that?_

Serenity came back with a small pack of ice faster than he would have expected.

"Did you find it?"

"No problem. The nice maid from the day before gave it to me. But don't worry, I haven't told her what I was using it for." She winked and handed Kaiba the ice pack.

He gratefully put it on his cheek. After all, he didn't need a mark or a bruise today. He had plans.

"Is there any other topic I shouldn't talk about at a rendezvous?" He asked in order to finally get over with their little exchange.

"Yes, err… a former partner." Of which he had none, as far as Serenity knew. "Politics and religion."

"Shouldn't be a problem," he answered and shrugged. "Are there any more things we need to talk about tonight?"

"Well," she began but stopped. He seemed to be impatient but there was indeed one more thing she should talk about with him in order to fulfill her task as a teacher.

Serenity bit her lip, and then said, "our last topic should be '_the kiss'_…"

-

TBC…

-

(A/N: Yes, the final day seems to be endless—but it has to be!)


	9. Final Day Part II

_Thank you for your reviews—means an awful lot to me! Hopefully you ain't gonna kill me for this chapter. It's Tbc, remember that! _

_Thanks to my beta._

_Sangha_

-

**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

-

Chapter Nine

-

"**Final Day – Part II"**

-

Serenity bit her lip, and then said. "Our last topic should be '_the kiss'_…"

Seto looked at her intensely, and then raised an eyebrow slowly. "What's there to talk about? If I like her, I'm going to kiss her."

The calculating brain of Mr. Kaiba was actually easy to understand. If he could stand the woman and felt attracted to her, he would simply kiss her—whether she wanted it or not. She had to want it if she liked him. Shouldn't she? It was logical.

"How do you know that she wants to?" Serenity tried to approach it more directly, already assuming he had no clue about what she wanted from him. "Timing is the key."

"…" Seto opened his mouth, and then closed it again. How did he know? He could not know. "I will know as soon as I make a move."

"True." She nodded. "But wouldn't you want to know if she wants to kiss you before you do?"

His blue eyes narrowed, weighing whether what she said made any sense at all, then if he wanted to give an answer to that question at all.

_It's decided. _

"How?"

"Now, that's the right way." Serenity said, almost scolding him and mentally patting his head. These brown locks were damn attractive after all! "I could give you clues about when you can assume that a woman wants to kiss you."

Seto crossed his arms and leaned back, regarding the girl next to him. _Could she truly know? Was there maybe even an easy formula concerning women and when they wanted to kiss you?_ This was truly new to him. But maybe even easier than he would have thought. No more getting slapped like that one time when that dark-haired smiled at him and he kissed her.

_Okay, so maybe he should have introduced himself beforehand… but there'd been no need to hit him! Why did every woman seem to be into violence?_

"Okay," Serenity began and crossed one leg over the other, directing herself to the CEO. "A woman wants to kiss you when, a) she's in a relaxed posture, slightly leaning toward you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Seto shrugged, not quite understanding how it should look at all. "Is she lying down, sitting or standing? Or what?"

"Look at me," she ordered, waving with both her hands in order to support her request. "I've crossed my legs and I'm turned towards you. If I just lean forward a little bit more, then you can assume I want to kiss you."

_If this doesn't give him a hint, nothing will._ Serenity folded her hands across her knee and stared into the depths of his eyes, sweetly and seductively. She watched as Kaiba closed his eyes briefly, and then stared at her emotionlessly.

_So this isn't enough for Mr. Wood-head._

"My head's tilted upward and I'm looking into your eyes." She spoke with the sweetest and most melodic voice she possessed and waited for Kaiba to respond—in any possible way, whatever that meant.

But Kaiba, being Kaiba, just stared at her, his brain doing flip-flops in order to look through her intentions. He wasn't that stupid as to not even realize that she was being weird in a way. _But she was just giving him an example… right?_ Last time when he had assumed something else behind her words and doings, she laughed at him and told him that she wasn't interested in him.

_This could mean nothing else apart from the example she was trying to show him._

Serenity realized soon that nothing would happen. Those cold blue eyes stared back at her and she was feeling more and more stupid.

_Damn robot. Okay, here we go, the next step._

"And you can be sure that I want to kiss you cause my lips are slightly parted." She wetted her lips purposely but delicately and pointed her index finger to her lips before she whispered, "see?"

Seto swallowed. _God_, her example was making even him nervous. Her wet bottom lip was tempting after all. _So rosy and soft…_ at least it looked like it was soft. _And kissable_. Correction: It was begging to get kissed. _Man, she was good._ Seto could feel the sweat drop building in his brow. Serenity was doing a good job. He would not be able to hold back whenever a woman should look at him that way.

_A pity that Wheeler was just doing it as an example!_

_God, he had to be sick if he didn't get it now!_ Serenity could feel the growl building inside of her. She was fooling herself. _He would never ever kiss her, let alone like her. **Arg**._ She sighed and slumped her shoulders, relaxing her muscles from concentrating on seducing Seto Kaiba.

"Well, you can assume that a woman wants to kiss you if she doesn't end the date with the words: 'thanks, I'll call you.' " She forced a small smile, disappointed that her plan hadn't worked.

"That's how I usually end interviews. Except for the thanks, that is," he replied monotonously.

_The guy has no hormones! Why does he want a girlfriend at all?_ Serenity mentally freaked out. Yet, she knew he had hormones. After that incident when she was drunk… But why wasn't he getting it now? An idea hit her like Joey could stuff pizza: in a mere second's shot. She suddenly remembered what she had once told him:

_You thought that I wanted you to sleep with me? How did you come up with this? Have you taken a bath that was too hot? No, honestly. This is so ridiculous!_

And she had laughed at him. _Damn_.

Back to the program of tutoring Kaiba-boy. She would come back to the detailed kissing later.

"Okay, well, a woman is definitely not interested if she keeps her mouth shut, searches for her keys in a very obvious way, avoids eye-contact, presses her chin to her chest, or shoves out her hand for you to shake it when she says, 'thank you.' Got that?" Serenity explained rather quickly. There was no need to go into too much detail in the matter.

But Kaiba wondered why wasn't she giving him an example this time. It seemed that Serenity was rushing this particular example. Not that he complained. He was running out of time anyway.

"Mouth shut, looking for keys, avoiding eyes, chin to the chest and handshake… right? I got that." Yet, he would have liked an example. It was quite a lot to save in his mind and it was way easier if she showed it visually.

"And do you know _how_ to kiss? I mean I could give you some clues on when to start, break, or what to do exactly. But only if you like," Serenity offered with a friendly smile. But she prayed that he would say yes.

For two reasons:

1) She would like to know what he actually knew about kissing and…  
2) It would maybe prompt him to feel something more towards her.

"Let's just make this clear: I _know_ how to kiss. But further advice couldn't hurt." Seto wasn't in need of advice how to kiss but he appreciated if she had some extra clues on the when, where—timing—and with how much effort.

"Just some clues like I said." She shrugged and turned to look at him, almost too enthusiastically. "You've got to be aware of her body language. Like I've told you before. You can time a kiss if you know that she wants to. And I told when a woman wants to kiss you."

"Yeah, noted. Go on." No need to repeat anything. He learned quickly!

"As soon as you've mentally decided to kiss her, do it! To hesitate in front of someone's lips would make her nervous, in fact both of you. Don't do that, ever."

Oh, how she wished he'd wanted her to give him an example! 

"I see. Don't worry about it. If I ever do something, I go all the way," Kaiba said with certainty in his voice and leaned forward, supporting the words with his posture.

_That held promises, didn't it? _Serenity swallowed. He was near now, close even, very close. Would she be brave or would she chicken out? _Yeah, right, if he did something, he went full stop but let's just talk about her! _She had backed away often enough before kissing even though she knew it was a mistake.

"Look into her eyes on your way to her mouth…" She spoke and never left his gaze with her own, hoping he'd get the hint this time, _damn it_! "Close your eyes just when you're approached her lips, not any earlier…" She heard her heart beat in her chest like some kind of African tribal dance but she did it: she closed her eyes slowly.

_KISS ME!_

_One – two – three – four – five…_ with every second feeling like an eternity Serenity slowly felt more and more foolish. _Six – Seven – Eight… Okay, that was enough._ With disappointment but curiosity she opened one eye and saw the CEO merely looking back at her.

Kaiba looks like the ever-so-good student. Damn it! 

Opening both of her eyes, Serenity grinned over the pinkish color on her cheeks and winked. "Just an example… I just wanted you to see how she'd look like in a situation like this."

"I know," He replied calmly against his inner panic. _God, when she had closed her eyes, her lips were merely parted and a soft blush caressed her face, he could have sworn she wanted to get kissed!_ But logic told him otherwise. She was his teacher. He was the student. Serenity was just trying to show him an example. _Still, it looked awkward. Odd even._

She sighed. Obviously, Seto Kaiba had no interest in her. All she could do was at least try to do her job as well as she could. "When you kiss the girl for the first time, start gently. Press your lips softly against hers and do the tongue battle later."

Kaiba just shrugged. "Whatever. If you say so."

_Battling was one thing he thought he was really good at._

"Then, when you pull away, you see if you should keep kissing her or not by the way she's looking at you afterwards." Serenity continued.

"Like… _how_?" He really had no idea, the poor soul.

"You'll have to see." _How was she supposed to explain how a woman could look after a kiss?_ Serenity was a bit lost there but tried to help anyway. "Maybe she looks like… well, pleased. She might smile or keep her eyes closed… somehow… you have to see what expression she has. She could also look disgusted, then smile and say goodbye."

Seto growled slightly. That was just what he hated the most. He had no clue about things like that. _Why would she be disgusted anyway? But hell, Wheeler was probably right there. It was his risk to take and if he would indeed disgust a woman, he could at least make a proper disappearance and leave. No smile and goodbye. Not with Seto Kaiba!_

"At the second kiss you can go further, then. Now you're allowed the tongue games!" Serenity grinned, probably because she expected Kaiba to grin as well.

Usually guys were like that. Say 'tongue games' and they'd get a mischievous grin. But not Seto Kaiba. _That man was an ice cube with legs, arms and a head._

"Don't swallow the woman's tongue as soon as it's in your mouth, though! Instead, pry her lips gently open and move slowly forward. A gentle touch with your tongue can work out nicely, you'll see. Just imagine making love to her tongue, lips and mouth."

_My God! She was overdoing it now!_ Seto had the feeling she was giving him far more details than necessary, and unaware of his attitude he snapped, "I know that!"

"Okay, okay, I was just trying to help…" Offended, Serenity almost backed away from him. _Since when was he so shy?_

"Are you done, now?"

"Just one more thing," she replied, slightly annoyed now. "My last piece of advice is: don't overdo it. Try kissing her eyelashes, neck and cheeks to spice up the whole kiss."

Seto rolled his eyes. "You must think I don't even know a single thing about kissing. But listen, Wheeler, last time I checked I was a pretty good kisser—from what I've heard so far!"

He made his point. But that only gave Serenity the possibility to challenge. "Yeah? Is that so, Kaiba?"

"And if, Wheeler. Or don't you believe me?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"What if I don't?" She probed bravely, narrowing her eyes as well, but in a more seductive manner.

"I guess then I've got to show you," he answered smugly. _She would chicken out, right?_

"Well, I guess you've got to show me then."

_No chickening out this time! _

Was this real or was it not? Was now the time when he would kiss her? Would he prove himself and do what Serenity hoped he'd do?

Serenity's heart pounded inside her chest. _This was serious, undoubtedly. But was he serious as well?_

Kaiba snorted lowly. "You're kidding me, Wheeler, it's obvious. But I won't fall for that. I'm too smart for you. Try to kid someone else with that. What are your intentions? Let me guess. You're trying to make me kiss you, so you can hit me again. Well, better forget that quickly. I'm no one to make fun of."

Yeah, right, Kaiba thought he was smart and that he could see through her real intentions. Don't mess with Seto 'walking intelligence' Kaiba.

And Serenity, well, she sweat dropped. She had been so close and yet, Kaiba had once again proven that he had no clue about what women want. Only magic could help. He was to be pitied, even. _So smart, yet so dumb. So, so dumb… Too dumb…_

"I guess we're done now," Serenity said, sighing. "I told you everything I know. You should be ready for a date now. Or are there any questions left?"

It was sad after all that their common agreement about tutoring, it seemed finally to end—without a kiss, without anything. At least in Serenity's case. All that was left was the amount of money she'd receive and the hope that he would at least have a question…it was the last straw she had.

_Please Kaiba._

"I do," he said, turning to her eagerly.

Serenity's heart jumped with the rising hope inside of her. "Well?"

"What about a test?"

"Huh?" _What the hell was that supposed to mean? What did he want to test? _"A test?"

"Yes. Every lesson ends with an exam, doesn't it? I want to be tested." A nod of certainty sealed his words but Serenity stared at him as if she'd been kicked in the shin.

"What are you thinking of? There's no test prepared and---"

"No, not like that. I want us to go out and see what I've learned." He shook his head and stood to his full height, gazing down at the very uncertain girl.

"I doubt that this is—"

"Why? You said that you've taught me everything you know. That means I'm ready, doesn't it? So, come on, let's see if I will pass the exam or not." Seto took her wrist and pulled her up to her feet and although she didn't even want to, she hadn't the willpower to pull away from his grasp.

Damn Seto Kaiba. She really did not want to see him chatting up women. That was the last thing she needed. Then again, there was the tiny possibility that he was still same old Kaiba who failed when it came to women. And then Serenity Wheeler could be there to make him finally see that she—damn right, she—was the right one for him.

"Okay, okay. You shall have your stupid test. But I've got to change first."

Seto stopped just when he had grabbed the keys of his car and gazed down at her, visually inspecting her clothes. She was dressed in rather tight black jeans with a hip belt or whatever it was called—he didn't know—and a pink top with tiny straps across the shoulder and upper arms. _What was wrong with it?_

"There's nothing wrong with what you're wearing. They're fine. It looks good." He shrugged.

_**Wow**. It looked good. Had he really said that?_ Serenity wasn't sure if he had truly meant what he had said, but she couldn't help but blush lightly. _Yeah, he thought she looked good. He had said so, hadn't he?_

"But my hair. I haven't done my hair and make-up."

Now Kaiba was rolling his eyes. "What do you want to do with your hair? _Brush it?_ It looks fine the way it is. And you really do not need any make-up. I hate it when girls look like nothing but artificial substances and colors. That's ugly."

_Man, he was a charmer!_ Sarcastically, Serenity quirked an eyebrow. She had lied a bit. Of course she already wore make-up but just a bit, not too visible. She wouldn't go to Kaiba without any—not on their last day. And her clothes she had picked carefully as well.

But the hair thing had surprised her. She wanted to do something with in, anything, just to make it look better. But in the end she had left it the way it was. Her mom had always said that she looked nicer with her hair freely hanging down and Kaiba obviously felt the same way. _Maybe he did like her?_

"Fine. I trust you Kaiba, I hope you realize that," she added skeptically and gave him a warning look. It was playful but still it should at least show him that she believed in him.

"Good."

Serenity could have sworn she saw a flash of lightning in his pupils. Nevertheless she followed him.

Only twenty minutes passed by while they were riding in Kaiba's car to their destination: a club called 'Miracle'. Quite an adequate name considering that he needed one, Serenity mused mentally, though she wasn't so sure after all. The car was successfully parked and Kaiba had generously paid for them to get inside.

So here they were, standing at the side of the dance floor, gazing around quite stupidly next to one other. What was Serenity supposed to do? Questioningly she looked at the guy next to her. Kaiba seemed deep in thought, staring ahead. With his unusual presence, dressed as he was, slowly it dawned on Serenity.

_He must have planned this all along._

And he had.

Seto turned to look at Serenity before he grabbed her wrist, dragging her along onto the dance floor. "Let's go dancing."

Informed of what his intention was Serenity followed until he stopped on the dance floor, putting his hands where she had once told him to do.

"I want to see if I still can do." The determined look was once more in his eyes but so far she didn't mind. "I've got to see if I'm still able to dance as you've taught me. Then I'm ready for seriously trying it out with a woman."

Serenity sweat-dropped mentally. **_Gah!_** She had honestly thought he _wanted_ to dance with her! _With her!_ But he was just trying it out. She was the experiment. Nothing else. Sighing, she put her hand in his.

Ready to start Kaiba stopped abruptly like a car with screeching tires when the music changed and a slower song started to play. _Too bad._ _He would have to leave the dance floor and wait until a faster song would get played again. _So he pulled at Serenity…

…who refused to go, and asked, "what are you doing?"

"This is a slow song," he stated, obviously convinced she would understand without any further comment.

"So what? We never tried to see if you're able to dance to a slower song, did we? We shall do this like it's a last lesson, don't you think?" With hope and enthusiasm she gazed up into his eyes, which had narrowed like so often—this time in confusion.

Kaiba quickly thought about what she had said. Calculating if it made sense, adding productivity and multiplying it compelled him to quickly decide that it would be all right for the goal he wanted to achieve: to be the best. He shrugged and held his arms out to the girl who came dangerously close.

"We have to dance closer to a slow song. Wrap your arms around my waist." Serenity bit her lip, realizing that it was awkward to give him instructions on how to handle her. As her blush rose she quickly looked down and kept on talking. "Your hands should be on my back while my hands should stay on your shoulders."

Serenity coughed, then swallowed while Kaiba was obeying her and hugging her slim waist with his arms. _Pooh, this was weird_. He was touching her, wasn't he? And she felt so good, yet very excited and nervous all over. Turning her head to the side she leaned her head against his chest. _Boy, he seemed so calm and Serenity, well, she probably was already colored like a tomato across her cheeks. Luckily he couldn't see._

"Is this right this way?" Suspiciously he looked at her red-haired head, which was resting against his chest.

"Yes, yes, just move slowly to the music." She nodded against his chest, and he relaxed.

For a moment he almost thought she was enjoying it. Attempting to focus his thoughts on something else he realized that his hand resting on her back was touching bare skin. _How had that happened? _Tall as he was, he directed his gaze to her back. Oh yeah, right, her shirt wasn't that long; it ended just above the waistband of her jeans! _Great_.

_Why was it so hot?_

His hand felt ninety degrees colder anyway; but her back felt like fire. _A strange mix._

Serenity tried not to jump at the touch of his cold fingers. _Was the high and mighty Seto Kaiba actually nervous? _Serenity twisted her lips into a small but devilish smile and pressed her hot cheek against his chest. It was too tempting to resist. _Broad, strong, perfect. _And she had seen it naked. It should be her property already!

And as she was enjoying what was going on she suddenly realized that Kaiba had stopped moving. _Something was wrong._ She had no clue _what_ but she could feel it. Looking upwards to dart her eyes at him, she saw that he was frowning.

"What?"

"The song. It's over," he said, eyeing her as if she were insane. "A faster one is playing."

"Oh." And once again Serenity Wheeler scored in the 'Ultimate Game of Stupidity'.

**_Shit_**.

With her face glowing a bright red, she cursed herself for giving into temptation. "I'm thirsty, aren't you thirsty?"

"Hey, what about trying out the faster song, Wheeler?" Seto's question remained unanswered as Serenity strolled off the dance floor. "Wheeler! Damn it!"

The music was loud enough that his low cursing wasn't heard, not by Serenity anyway. She stopped at the bar and ordered herself a drink when Kaiba joined her with a glare. His patience was running low and his gaze shifted across the mass of people inside the room. Serenity downed her drink quite quickly before she ordered another one.

"What do you think of the brunette over there?"

The question was so unexpected that Serenity coughed before she inquired a shaky, "whom?"

"Long brown hair, red top, skirt…" He replied, cocking his head in the direction of the woman of his desire. "I shall go and talk to her."

"Nah. That's Tracy, one of those biology majors. They say she once sliced open a living piglet in front of her classmates." Serenity shook her head in disgust and wrinkled her nose.

But it worked. Though Seto was always doubtful when it came to rumors, he was disgusted enough to skip her and kept watching the mass. An aquarium full of pretty hot fishes and he was in the mood to play shark today.

"Got her," he suddenly exclaimed. "There. The blonde with the black dress."

Serenity inspected his choice with suspicion. "That's Caroline Jones. She's in my history class. Very intelligent; she has rich parents so she can pay her so-called friends. She attends business class also and well, she's damn beautiful."

Not that Serenity had wanted to add her last sentence, but envy had made her words too blunt. "But she's adored by many guys. I doubt you'd have a chance."

"We'll see." And Kaiba was gone.

Serenity watched in awe as he made his way over to Caroline and said something to her. Then Caroline said something, then Kaiba… well, the chat was flowing so well. _How did he manage so quickly?_

"Seems like you did a great job." A familiar voice spoke up and Serenity turned to look into another pair of adorable eyes, much like Seto's. She guessed it ran in the family.

"Mokuba! What are you doing here? Aren't you grounded or something?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Am still but Seto seems busy and I thought it'd be nice saying hello to you. Don't tell him I'm here or I'm so going to pay."

"I won't," Serenity assured him and winked before she shifted her eyes over to Seto Kaiba again. The aforementioned brunette had been chatting easily to Caroline until they both left to join the dance floor. Serenity cringed inside, having an urgent need to spit fire.

"Wow, you taught him well." Mokuba stated the obvious.

"Too well," Serenity muttered under her breath but the younger Kaiba heard her nonetheless.

"How about you and me sit down over there while he's busy?" He friendly suggested, and Serenity shrugged.

"Why not." After she had followed the raven-haired teen, they both sat down at a small table. The girl sighed, her eyes still fixed on the dancing couple.

"You don't seem too happy about his success with women."

"Huh?" She gazed as innocently at Mokuba as she was able to. "Well, no, no. I mean I _am_ happy for him. It proves I'm a good teacher, right?"

In Mokuba's opinion, she wasn't very convincing, but he dropped it. Whatever was going on between them, he couldn't figure it out.

And so minutes passed, though they seemed like hours. Serenity kept watching Kaiba and Caroline. _What an ironically good mix.** Caroline Kaiba.** _Serenity wanted to retch! And Caroline kept touching him while they were dancing—she had damn touched Serenity's property—even though it was just an armOh, she could swear to God, if Caroline did him any damage, she would **die!** _Better she left her dirty fingers off him before she would break him!_ _**ARG!** _

_What was she thinking, for god's sake?_

Caroline could do whatever she wanted with Seto Kaiba. He didn't belong to Serenity. He belonged to no one but himself, and if he wished to be touched by Caroline, then so be it. He wasn't even interested in Serenity, nor did he have the slightest attraction to her. He had said it himself.

I wouldn't touch you even if my life depended on it! I'd rather die! 

Those had been his exact words.

Serenity knew she should stop fooling herself. She downed her drink when she had come to a conclusion. Walking clumsily over to Mokuba who was just showing another girl his tongue piercing, she tapped him on his shoulder—before he could go any further in showing the girl the good sides of having a metal stick inside of his mouth.

"I'm heading home, okay? Don't look for me."

"Well, err… okay. What about Seto? Don't you want to tell him?"

"No, he's busy. I don't want to ruin his, well, thing… whatever…" her voice trailed off and she shrugged.

"Will you be okay all alone? I could call my driver and…"

"Nah. Gonna take a cab. Good night, Mokuba, and have a nice evening." Serenity forced a grin though she was rather depressed.

"Damn you, Seto Kaiba!" She told the clear, dark sky in its whole beauty above her as she stood outside waiting for the cab. "Good luck, Caroline bloody Jones!"

The cab pulled up and the not so happy Serenity disappeared inside of it.

But a rather successful CEO was left within his new element: flirting. He felt like God! Or the Devil—depending on the way one saw it. But he had a feeling almost like flying. Caroline, the blonde he was attempting to seduce, was obviously interested, if not even very thrilled by him. _Yeah, he rocked!_

Seto looked down at her, holding her while dancing. She wasn't as small as Wheeler; nor was her face as beautiful. But the whole package was blowing his mind nevertheless: well-curved body, astonishing blue eyes and intelligent. He might like her in the future.

Although something was different about dancing with her. When he touched her bare shoulders or arms, she wasn't hot; nor was he cold. Plus he wasn't nervous at all when she rested her head against his shoulder. Fact was, he didn't know why. Though, he could imagine two possibilities:

a) Caroline just belonged there or

b) Caroline didn't belong there at all.

In case of the second option he was in deep trouble, so he decided that it was better to ignore option b. Because if she didn't belong there for the simple reason she wasn't able to make him feel nervous, cold, hot and confused all the same… well then, it meant another one could.

That would be a big, big problem.

Caroline gazed up at Seto and lifted her head so she could whisper in his ear. "Would you like to come to my place and maybe have a drink with me?"

At first Seto's eyes widened. Then his little evil side cut in and he smirked. He would always get what he wanted and this feeling was the best! Putting on the charm, he replied, "of course."

Then it hit him! Serenity! Where was Wheeler? Frantically he looked left and right, even up and down, but nowhere was that damn girl to see. No Serenity. But someone else. Someone familiar. Someone grounded!

"Excuse me," he said and strode over to Mokuba who in response was panicking that he was caught. What could the boy do?

"Mokuba! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Excuse me? Ich spreche nicht Ihre Sprache, Sir." The boy replied smartly.

"Cut the bullshit, Mokuba!" Kaiba immediately smacked his brother's head lightly. "Have you seen Serenity?"

"Serenity? Yeah, she's gone." Mokuba rubbed his head.

"Gone? Where did she go?" Kaiba wondered why she hadn't told him. And why hadn't he noticed?

"Home." Mokuba could have sworn his brother hadn't cared a few minutes ago and now he was furious. Grinning he added, "why? Something wrong with the blonde?"

Seto snorted. "No. Well, if Wheeler is gone, the better it is. I'm off as well." He was about to leave when he saw the woman approach him. "And you," he glared once more at his brother, "are going home as well! Got that?"

"Yes." Mokuba nodded and smiled at the blonde, who suddenly clung to his big brother's arm. As he watched the two of them leave, he turned to a girl and shrugged.

"Do you really have to go home?" She asked and tilted her head to the side, begging him to stay with a puppy-eyes look.

"Nah," Mokuba grinned and winked at her.

-

To be continued…

-

End of chapter nine.

-

"_Ich spreche nicht Ihre Sprache" means in English: I don't speak your language. ;D_

_Please review and tell me if you (still) like it!_


	10. Obvious Success?

Last time in 'How To Find A Girlfriend…':

_Serenity: "I'm heading home, okay? Don't look for me. (…) Kaiba's busy. I don't want to ruin his, well, thing… whatever…" Scene changes to outside.  
Serenity: "Damn you, Seto Kaiba! Good luck, Caroline bloody Jones!" Scene changes to inside.  
__Kaiba: "Have you seen Serenity?"  
__Mokuba: "Serenity? Yeah, she's gone."  
__Kaiba: "Well, if Wheeler is gone, the better it is." We see Mokuba looking after Kaiba + Caroline. _

I do not own **Yu-Gi-Oh!** or any of the characters from out of it—just to remind you! I'm just a bit hyper because the last episodes of YGO will finally be in German TV soon! But that's to read in 'How To Make A Twenty-Four Years Old Female Weirdo Happy"…

-

_ANYWAY… **Thanks a huge lot for your reviews**—means an awful lot to me! So far, I've made Kaiba to a quite honorable guy, have I not? Let's see if he proves it… or not. You've got to read…_

_Thanks to my beta._

_Sangha_

-

**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

-

Chapter Ten

-

"**Obvious Success?"**

-

10:30 am the next day…

Kaiba turned to give his car one last glance and pressed the remote to lock it with two loud beeps before he reluctantly left it in the parking lot. He didn't like this area of Domino and the thought of leaving his car here was anything but pleasant, but what had to be done, had to be done. And so he walked inside the apartment building where he had been only once in his entire life. The memories were still lingering in his mind though he had tried to delete them. With very little success.

_The whole pack of Marlboros hadn't even worked!_

He stopped at the apartment door with the self-made wooden sign, showing the number 3A and a childish pair of shoes. Tasteless in his opinion, but nothing to really mind. He pressed the button for the doorbell and waited.

He could hear voices inside. One he recognized immediately but didn't like at all. The one he wanted to hear was missing. Pressing the doorbell once again, he tapped his foot impatiently when a voice from inside said something like "Hold on. Coming!"

The door opened slightly to reveal a messy blond head and a face showing surprise, then shock, then dislike, and finally disgust before it was closed again. Fortunately Kaiba hadn't expected anything else and before the door was shut again, had put his foot inside the frame.

"Arg!" The man said and cringed, annoyed. "What do you want here, Kaiba?"

"Your hospitality is overwhelming, Wheeler," Kaiba stated when Joey finally opened the door with rolled eyes.

"Yeah, well, we're busy." Joey said with a false smile, trying to force Kaiba to make it short.

Instead the taller man nonchalantly stepped inside the apartment and passed the brown-eyed boy by. Looking around, he couldn't spot his target but something else: cards. A lot of them. But no Duel Monsters cards, rather, written cards marked with different addresses. He opened one of them, all the while being watched by Joey with narrowed eyes; his patience had never been his strength with the CEO.

"For the last time, Kaiba, what do you want?" Joey stood in front of Seto and glared, but to no avail as the brunette ignored his question once again.

"Wedding invitations. Very interesting. You and Valentine. She must be insane."

Joey growled. He would have already lunged at Kaiba if his fiancée hadn't shown up in the background.

"_If_ I were insane, Kaiba, I would marry you instead," she stated with no humor at all.

Seto smiled amused, but creepily. "I'm hurt. Honestly, but I'm looking forward to the grand party. You can give me my invitation now. Spares you the postage."

"Who said you're invited?" Joey prompted in no time.

"I'm sure I am. I'll make sure of it." Kaiba smirked and laid the card he still held in his hands back down where he had found it. "Where's your sister, mutt?"

Joey clenched his fists at his sides, repeating his inner mantra: _don't let him get to you!_

"She's in her room, sick. She couldn't even go to University today. That why you can't see her." Joey said with enthusiasm, as he didn't like the idea of Kaiba being here at all. Something was wrong with Serenity being sick and her brother could smell half a mile against the wind that it had something to do with Mr. Important. No way was Kaiba seeing Joey's sister now.

"What do you want from her anyway, moneybags?"

"Mmm…" Seto made a noise almost like humming, which sounded in his case like a sarcastic melody. "None of your business. I don't care if she's sick."  
_  
The mutt was fooling him_. Kaiba could tell. _Serenity had been perfectly fine yesterday. She couldn't be sick. Something was wrong. Very wrong._ Seto made his way to where he knew Serenity's room was. It was saved in the back of his mind since the time he'd been there before.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Mai screeched at Kaiba with a puzzled face while Joey gawked, his mouth hanging open. _How the hell did Kaiba know where his sister's room was?_

Kaiba turned with an exaggerated sigh. "Listen Wheeler, I'm not here to argue with you; in fact I don't want to talk with you at all. I just want to talk with your sister. Do me a favor and keep out of it, okay, mutt?"

And while Joey was growling like he wanted to prove Kaiba's names for him, Serenity had come out of her room, hearing voices. She stood with a puzzled expression on her face when she saw, whom his brother was talking to.

"Kaiba." She said as if to assure herself. There wasn't even a hint of surprise in her voice because it was suppressed by annoyance. _The nerve the guy had to show up here! Dressed in the same clothes as last night! Ew!_ Her beautiful hazel eyes narrowed quickly.

"Serenity, he refuses to leave!" Joey shouted. "I told him you're sick and all but he just won't go away! Just say it and I'll kick his ass outta here!"

Mai choked.

Serenity nervously smiled.

Joey waited for the sign to attack the intruder.

No way could Joey kick him out, the women knew. Unfortunately, Kaiba did as well. He smirked at Joey, and then gazed at Serenity with raised eyebrows. _Why, oh, why had she a thing for those azure eyes? Hell, one week ago she would have told her brother to call the police! And now? **Why, why, why?**_

"It's okay, Joey," Serenity told her brother in a soothing voice to calm him down before she darted her eyes at Seto. "Ten minutes, Kaiba. Not one single second longer."

"That's more than enough," Seto stated and followed the girl inside her room.

He looked around for a bit, wordlessly taking in his surroundings. The walls were plastered with posters from movies or rock stars. A small computer was in one corner—an older version he supposed—something around 586. Her bed stood with the headboard against the wall and was neatly made, though a book was lying on the sheets. Opposite the bed was a wardrobe and next to it was a smaller one with sets of nail polish and other girly stuff that Seto had no clue about anyway.

"The time's already ticking, Kaiba." Suspiciously Serenity eyed Seto. _What the hell did he want here at all? And why did he have to look around here? It was making her nervous!_

"I know." He turned to look at her and reached for his back pocket, fishing out an envelope. "I just wanted to give you what you deserve."

Serenity's brows furrowed as she stared at the white envelope in Kaiba's right hand. "What is this?"

"It's your reward in return for your efforts in tutoring me." His lips twitched into a small, short smile as he gazed back at Serenity. "That's what you wanted, isn't it?"  
_  
Yes. _

_And no. _

Rather… no.

She stared at the envelope as if she wished it would vanish. _Was he really here to give her the damn money? Should she really take it? She should considering that he obviously had been successful last night. But considering that she liked him, fell even in love with him, it was a matter of pride and honor. _She couldn't take it anymore.

"No. I don't want it." Slowly she gazed up into Kaiba's eyes with a stern look.

"No?" Seto's eyebrows rose, though he was pleased with her answer. "Why don't you want it anymore? You seemed quite emphatic when I offered it a week ago."

"I just don't want it anymore." _Now she really had to find adequate words in order to refrain from appearing like a fool in front of the successful babe-magnet._ "I had fun tutoring you. I don't want this to end as a simple job because I enjoyed what I did. Just take it as some kind of service from a friend, okay?"

Uneasily, she gazed down at the envelope and shoved it back, refusing it with that one motion. Kaiba looked at her with confusion but was far from unpleased. _It was honorable of her not to take it and to refuse but hey, if she wouldn't take the damn envelope, his whole plan was screwed!_

"But I insist." He shoved it back at Serenity. "It's just what you deserve."

_What she deserved? What did she deserve at all? A man who paid her for a friendly service? Dirty money that would present her with no pride or honor?_ The determined look was back on his face and slowly Serenity lost her patience. _If he really wanted to pay her, then fine! He should pay her! And that's it. No more Seto Kaiba at all—at least for Serenity. She was so through with that arrogant moron!_

"Fine," she hissed through clenched teeth and snatched the envelope from out of Kaiba's hand. "If you feel better this way."

"In fact I do." Fortunately she had taken the envelope—_that stubborn girl!_ He would have 'tsk'-ed if the air weren't as thick as it already was. The right corner of his mouth twitched with anticipation and happiness—_yes, indeed happiness_—when Serenity unfolded the white paper and stared in confusion at its content.

"It's a… voucher." Serenity's jaw had dropped when she darted her eyes at Kaiba, then back to read what was written on the light blue paper.

Seto watched her raised eyebrows and then her smile that slowly built on her beautiful features.

"…For going on a special date with Seto Kaiba?" She almost couldn't believe how sweet that was. _Had he really done that? Had he even had the guts to give her that? She could use it as evidence showing what a nice person he really was… it meant he trusted her!  
_  
**_Oh. My. God._**

Serenity looked up at the waiting CEO with his raised brows when he asked, "well? Is that a yes?"

_Hm… now Serenity had her doubts. Where did that come from all of a sudden? Why her? And why was he still wearing the same old clothes as yesterday?  
_  
"I don't know. Didn't it turn out well with Caroline?" She almost spat the name of her rival.

"It went well. But that doesn't matter. Are you going to say yes or not?" Kaiba surely was pushing here and stubborn as he was, he didn't feel like explaining things.

"_I don't know_!" She said again, this time with force. "I mean, you can't expect me to go on a date with you after you come here, obviously not even changed… where did you come from, anyway?"

"Caroline." He answered truthfully. "Listen, Serenity. I will explain everything to you later. What I need to know _now_ is if you're going to go on a date with me or not."

Serenity took a deep breath. _**Later?** When was later and why was he so determined to get her answer right now?_ She sighed. "Fine."

"Okay. I promise to fill you in on everything when the time is be right." He nodded, assuring himself and Serenity. "So, are you ready?"

"_Ready_? For what?"

"The date."

"Now?" _Hold on, why now? Serenity had just said okay and he already wanted to go?_

"I know it's quite against the rules of what you taught me but I think we spent enough time with each other lately, so we're anything but strangers anymore. I don't want to wait another week or more." He tried to convince Serenity who gazed with a puzzled expression at Seto.

"_Don't_ you want to get _changed_ first?" She crossed her arms in a stubborn matter and waited for his reply.

"Later. _You_ should get changed though." He chuckled as his eyes wandered along Serenity's legs, simply clad in sweatpants. A blue top and slippers completed her less than stylish outfit. "I'll be waiting for you in the car. Go with something casual, no dress or anything."

Passing by a glaring Joey and his fiancée, who patted the blonde's knee to calm him, Seto said his goodbyes politely, though his voice held a sarcastic tone, as it often did.

Joey growled and as soon as he heard the door shut he said, "You better get out now, moneybags, or else… or else you're dog food."

Mai sweat-dropped.

Serenity raised her arms, and then let them fall down again. _What was she supposed to do? Get changed! That's what she was supposed to do! But—Kaiba was really something else. However, she needed to find something appropriate. Soon.  
_  
Seto drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he waited for Serenity. He was humming along to a song on the radio, though he had actually no clue what was on. A small smile even graced his lips.

Was he happy? So far he was. Finally he knew what he wanted, or rather, whom. The question was if it were the right decision. He could mess up, by all the gods! But he had a plan. He wouldn't disappoint Serenity. For the first time in his life he had that certain feeling. He couldn't put his finger on but it felt good. Was he in love? He had no clue. But he supposed he could be.

Ten minutes passed by while Seto was sitting in the car, patiently waiting, until the girl finally appeared. Opening the door she shifted her way inside and gazed at him questioningly.

"Okay, where do we go?"

He smiled as he took her in. She had dressed in simple blue jeans and a yellow top. Her hair was freely dangling down her shoulders—just the way he liked it. "You'll see."

Curiously Serenity gazed ahead as Seto set the car into gear and guided it on the street. Taking in the scenery they passed by she slowly had some clues as to where this was leading. Or they. The beach promenades were just in front of them in the west of Domino when finally Seto halted the car and climbed out of it, Serenity following reluctantly.

Kaiba opened the boot and presented two pairs of inline skates. "I hope I was guessing right. Shoe size number five?"

"Err… yes." Serenity stared at the pair of skates in Kaiba's hand and wondered how he knew about her shoe size. But she wondered even more why he of all people wanted to inline skate. She had taught him well, she supposed and took the offered items.

"You can skate, can't you? I was hoping you could." He sat on the boot of the car and slipped off his rather new-looking sneakers.

"Oh, well, I can. I'm quite good actually." She took the place next to him and started to change her shoes as well while she still couldn't believe that he wanted to do exactly _that_ with her.

"Good. Because I won't be able to help you." He closed the last strap on his skate and looked at her. "It's my premiere today."

With no hesitation he stood on his skates and rolled until they luckily stopped by themselves. Serenity smiled, eying the young man who seemed to have far more talent than just dueling, or more recently, dancing and flirting, as he wasn't doing so badly on the skates. She stood up to get the feeling with her skates and rolled next to him, while he locked the car by remote.

"You've really never done this before?" She asked as she watched his impressively improving moves.

"No. Never. The skates are Mokuba's. Well, not yours, obviously. But mine."

_Oh, good God above—that man!_ Serenity had her hands full concentrating on his words when those brown bangs of his hair swayed in the wind, framing those eyes. _She knew, if any at all, she definitely had an eye fetish from now on!  
_  
"He's only sixteen or what and he's got the same shoe size as you?" She giggled and teased him as they slowly made their way along the promenades, between the beach and the city.

"Well, the boy's got big feet." He smiled a bit, and then almost hit some passenger crossing their path.

Serenity had the feeling that this day might turn out better than she could have ever imagined. She hadn't felt too well in the morning and had skipped University in order to stay in bed and pity herself that Seto Kaiba thought another girl was far more attractive than she. But who could have ever guessed that she was wrong and he would ask her out for a date? Today, even.

_It was unbelievable. Hopefully this wasn't just a dream… _

Indeed, she had to believe it; at least after they had skated almost one mile both ways. And indeed, they were having fun. She liked the way Seto cursed whenever someone or something got into his way, almost making him fall over. But he was doing well, regaining his balance every time.

Did he ever fail? It didn't seem so to her.

Approaching the beach, Serenity stopped and sat down on the stones of the path next to the white sand. She unclasped the straps of her skates and removed her socks as well in order to get her toes into the warm sand, while Seto slowly sat down next to her. He was grateful that they were taking a break. The day was sunny and warm and the inline skates were making his feet slowly start to boil.

Serenity sighed and smiled before she moved to grab one of his skates in order to free his foot as well. Kaiba shot a puzzled, almost shocked look at her.

"I was starting to feel like my feet were freshly cooked pudding," she explained, never stopping with her task, instead removing the second skate as well.

"But—" Seto stopped with his sentence. Actually he didn't like the thought of Serenity removing his skates at all. His feet felt like anything but freshly showered. At least she didn't seem to care. The thought of sand between his toes wasn't the most pleasant one either.

"It's okay. It's quite nice putting your feet right in the sand." She put the skates at the side and smiled, settling down on the spot next to him again.

"It's… warm." Uncomfortable, unusual, dirty and weird as well, but he didn't have to be that negative. Warm described it perfectly fine. Seto gave a very tiny grin. "Do you like it so far?"

"What? Our date? Yes, I like it. And you?" Serenity responded with a bright, certain and enthusiastic smile.

"Yes, I do. Of course, it was my idea after all."

"Mmh…" She thought for a moment when something else, something almost forgotten, bothered her. "Why the sudden idea of going out with me at all? You were looking pretty fine with Caroline yesterday. And it went well, you said it yourself."

Seto almost chuckled. He was wondering all the time when she would become impatient and ask him finally. "You want to know what happened, am I right?"

"Yes. I mean, no, not if it's anything… too private. But yes, I just wondered what had happened that made you change your mind so suddenly."

"Well… to be honest I changed my mind when I was at Caroline's place. The moment she kissed me."

"What?" _The damn bitch had kissed Serenity's property… she meant, date, yes, Serenity's date? That was sounding quite adequate at the moment. Ew. Her Kaiba. Err… Kaiba was kissed by that Paris Hilton clone!_ "She kissed you?"

The expression on Serenity's face was priceless but he liked it nevertheless. She obviously didn't like the thought of Caroline kissing him, which strangely pleased him. "Yes, she did. Actually she was quite nice. And she's not ugly; she has a very nice home…"

"Get to the point, Kaiba." Serenity impatiently drummed her fingers against the stones beneath her.

"I will. To put a long story short, she kissed me and just the exact moment before she did, I knew I didn't want her to. She kissed me though; I couldn't help it. Fact is, she noticed that and asked me what was wrong. So I told her."

"What did you tell her? That you didn't want to kiss her?" Serenity was a bit confused as to what it had to do with her.

"That and everything else. I didn't realize why I didn't want to kiss her in the first place. So we were talking. Caroline isn't as bad as you probably think. On the other hand, she was probably pretty dumb. Anyway, to come to the point of my talk with Caroline: I missed a lot of things when I was with her, like yelling at each other, or being soaked in coffee, or getting slapped, or…"

"Having fun?" She grinned teasingly.

He eyed her for a moment before he responded, almost defenseless. "Exactly. I guess I've had a bit of fun with you after all—the dancing part wasn't thoroughly bad." Seto admitted with a slight hint of a joke through his small grin.

Serenity gazed at him with all kinds of questions in her head but she didn't ask. There was no need to push his buttons. So far she pretty much didn't need any more convincing to believe that he preferred fun to kissing Caroline… or whatever else she had had in her mind. He obviously was serious about this. He wanted a girlfriend. No fooling around—he was dead serious.

Nonetheless, she was scared. His intentions were clear and definitely good but she hoped that he wouldn't push her into anything. The date had come rather quickly. But all she could do was wait and see how this would turn out and what he would do next.

She shouldn't remain so clueless.

"Are you hungry? Sure, you are. It's long past midday." He moved to stand up and looked down at her. "I'm going to get us something to eat. Just wait here."

Serenity watched Kaiba disappear without any clue at all. She forced herself not to come up with ideas of what he'd do exactly. The fact that they were skating was a big enough of a surprise. Playing with the sand between her fingers, she smiled slightly in happiness. There hadn't been time to even think about what they were doing, where she was and who was actually on a date with her!

_And Caroline Jones was a bad kisser!_ Serenity thought and leaned back, supported by her palms. _Either Jones kissed badly or Kaiba really preferred Serenity over her._ There was still a bit of doubt playing on her mind. _There had to be something else. Wasn't he human? No human guy was able to keep his hands off of Caroline Jones! Was he lying to her?  
_  
Serenity blinked against the sun as if to ask God, but Seto was just emerging back with something to eat. Carrying two paper bags and two cans of soda, he sat down next to her and opened one of the bags.

"There's a chicken burger, fried potatoes, crepes if you want something sweet, then noodles with chicken curry and a simple cheese sandwich." He gazed up at her smiling face. "What do you like?"

"I don't know… the noodles--if that's okay for you." She almost suppressed the urge to grin even as it amused her that Kaiba had gone to what was closest: the fast food at some snack bar around the beach.

He handed her the noodles without another comment and picked the chicken burger for himself, after opening a can of soda. In silence they ate for a moment and it felt nearly awkward for the first time on their date.

"You never said anything about fast food."

"What?" Serenity eyes observed Kaiba with confusion, and then she smiled. "You mean, fast food on a date?"

"Yes. But I figured there's no garlic, corncobs, poppy seeds, popcorn, onion, spareribs or watermelon in any of it. Except for the chicken but it's in between the noodles or the burger. That doesn't count." And with calmness that almost shone out of him he bit down on his chicken burger.

Serenity chuckled amused. "I see. Isn't there garlic on your chicken burger?"

Kaiba stopped chewing instantly. His eyes popped wide open and his pupils slowly moved down to his burger. _What? Garlic on a chicken burger? How? That'd mean… a date without any reward at all? He'd smell deathly! God damn it! Why did he fail? **Arg!**  
_  
Serenity's sudden laughter snapped him out of his upset mode and he glared at her. "I was just kidding! Sorry about that."

Seto's azure orbs narrowed as he glared at her icily, but to no avail as she kept on laughing nevertheless. He puffed out breath in order to make his anger go away, then smirked. _Such a funny little witch! _

"That's what I've missed about you," he coldly stated with irony, but honesty as well.

Her eyes darted upwards to meet his and she saw the smirk upon his lips. Slowly a smile crept upon her mouth, this time in simple bliss. "And that's what I've missed about you."

Serenity smiled but doubted he even had a clue what she meant. She watched as Kaiba dedicated himself to his burger once again and did the same with her noodles.

"So your brother's going to get married? Who would have thought that anyone would actually take him?"

"Well, that's called love. I see why Mai loves my brother. He'd go through hell and back for her," Serenity said rather authoritatively, shrugging.

"But he's annoying," Seto insisted stubbornly, making his point clear to her.

"In some people's eyes he isn't, and in other's he is. So is Mai in some people's eyes." Serenity grinned and turned to look at Kaiba. "I for sure know: they belong together. Believe me, I live with them."

Raising an eyebrow, Seto turned back to his lunch, thinking about what she had said. _Maybe it was true after all. People say that there's someone out there for everyone to make the perfect match. So far he had never believed it. But seeing that even the mutt had found himself a little lady-poodle, there still seemed to be hope.  
_  
_Was Serenity his perfect match?_ That question popped into his head without him asking for it. He had to figure it out; that was for sure. _Maybe after their date she wouldn't even be able to stand him anymore. Could she stand him at all?_ He didn't know. She had agreed to go out with him and she had had fun. A good start, he mused and mentally shrugged.

After they had eaten almost everything, except for a few potatoes and the crepes, Serenity leaned back, propping herself on her flat palms while watching Kaiba. He drank his soda and threw it casually into one of the bins around as if he had never done anything else in his entire life. _He surely was some kind of… some weirdo, but a cute one at that.  
_  
"Can we go for a walk on the beach?"

Kaiba checked his wristwatch and nodded, standing up. He didn't reach out a hand to her to help her up—she guessed she had forgotten to teach him that—but Serenity wasn't mad at him about it. She could do that by herself and hated it when everyone thought that she needed help all the time!

They took their skates and left for the beach, Serenity steering them directly toward the ocean. Her bare feet soon met with the wet sand where the waves had crashed the shore. Kaiba scrunched up his nose. He had plans for today and there was definitely no time for a stop to get showered. _Didn't she realize that? How should she? She had no clue. But whatever she did, he wouldn't tell her. Not so far.  
_  
"I love the beach! Joey and I used to be around the beach a lot when we were kids. He always got splashed by the waves." She couldn't help but recall some fond memories.

"Sounds like someone I know," Seto stated with no trace of joking. Just when Serenity gave him a questioning look, he explained. "Mokuba. Every year for his birthday he wanted to go to the beach and he always took no more than five minutes to get soaked in water."

Serenity laughed a little at the thought of that. She imagined Mokuba running away into the water while his brother was waving with hands and feet to make him listen to his orders.

"But that was when he was younger. Now he wants to go to stupid conventions or throw pool parties or go to some daft survival vacations… you never know."

"You don't like that?" Serenity could answer her question herself but she asked nonetheless, just to see Kaiba's reaction.

A snort followed. "There's an agreement we came up with. In the mornings of his birthdays we spend the day together, just the two of us. After lunch he is off to do whatever he likes, and with _who_ever."

"Seems like it's important to you, though, that you spend that day with him."

Kaiba drew in a long breath. "Shouldn't it?"

"No, it should," she smiled, then watched the sea, remembering what he had once had said to her. _You've got no clue about my actual treats. Maybe I've much more to give than you could ever imagine! _And so it truly seemed. He proved whatever image she'd had of him in the past as simply wrong. _Either that or he was even worse and faking all the things he did right now._

"You know, I still can't quite believe that you actually asked me out." Serenity chuckled as she gazed at him with a smile. "Why me?"

Seto stuffed one of his hands inside his pocket as he was holding his skates with the other one. His lips twisted into a small devilish smirk, before he responded in a slightly teasing tone. "Maybe I just like your equipment."

"My wha--- Oh, dear God! You still remember that?" She blushed, embarrassed, turning away from him.

"Equipment? Of course. But why are so embarrassed? You weren't embarrassed the last time you explained the matter of your equipment to me." He tilted his head to the side, regarding the girl with a small grin.

The moment he said '_that word'_ Serenity blushed even more, cursing herself for ever getting drunk in front of Seto Kaiba! Her cheeks were burning and slowly she became even enraged by the situation. "Don't say that!"

"What else am I supposed call it? Womanly attachments?"

_That bastard had actually a sense of humor!_ Still, Serenity couldn't stand the fact he was making fun of her. "Just don't call it anything at all!"

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm not drunk _right_ _now_!" She nearly yelled at Kaiba who was still chuckling.

"Maybe I asked you out because you're beautiful when you're red like a tomato." He laughed lightly while she was nearly collapsing as she fumed. "Or maybe because you're easy to annoy."

"Is that what I've taught you to compliment a girl on?" She stomped with her right foot into the wet sand and put her hands on her hips, glaring. _He really was pushing her buttons! Just not the right ones… _

Kaiba said nothing, but just kept on walking. Amused, he smiled at her behavior. That's what he truly liked about her. That and some other things like all the details forming her unique beauty, her nature, her character, her soul and all of her features. _Had he really gotten it that bad?_ He supposed he must have if he liked all those things about Serenity Wheeler.

"I suggest we get going now." Kaiba said after they'd walked along the beach for a while in silence.

"Already?"

"No need to be disappointed. This date is far from over." He replied calmly, making Serenity raise an eyebrow in curiosity. "You're into art and museums, aren't you? Then you certainly like exhibitions."

"What kind of exhibition?" She wondered out loud. "I thought that you weren't interested in art."

"Art isn't just art. You'll see when we get there." 

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_To be continued…_

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End of chapter ten.

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_A/N: I guess there are at least two more chapters to come and I can't possibly let them fight like in the first chapters. As romance isn't my strength I need you to tell me if it's crap, yeah? XD _

_**Please review!**_


	11. A Perfect Day

_**A/N: Thank you for your kind reviews! We're near the end but it's not the last chapter. A special thank you goes to Aska, who helped me here and there with the plot in the end:P **_

_To the mommy who reviewed: You are so damn cool! I hope you know that! If you ever like to read a story about equipment-handling, visit my live journal, there's the link to "Restless" cough… I'm happy you like my story!_

_**Thanks to my new beta Tawnykit. Go; check out her fics, she's brilliant.**_

_Sangha_

Last time in 'How To Find A Girlfriend…':

_Seto: "You're into art and museums, aren't you? Then you certainly like exhibitions."  
__Serenity: "What kind of exhibition? I thought that you weren't interested in art."  
__Seto: "Art isn't just art. You'll see when we get there."_

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**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

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Chapter Eleven

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"**A Perfect Day"**

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Serenity's eyes shifted to the man next to her who was calmly steering his car along the road. Kaiba didn't even seem to be nervous in the slightest. And here she was not able to concentrate on anything at all. The skates were back in the boot and the two dating partners on their way to an exhibition. Of course Serenity wondered where Kaiba might take her.

An exhibition. You could exhibit a lot of different things. Plus with Kaiba everything was possible. His statement 'art isn't just art' wasn't making the riddle any easier for her. Where would he take her? A museum? As far as she knew, he couldn't stand the Domino Museum. So what else? Some sick stuff like body art? High-tech art?

Serenity inhaled deeply and gazed out of the window when Kaiba turned right into the driveway of the Domino Elementary School. Puzzled, her eyes darted to him, but he climbed out of the car without giving her any clues. She sighed and went after him.

"The Elementary School? I thought we were going to an exhibition." She spoke out her thoughts, no matter what. She could easily guess he perfectly well knew what he did and had a plan. But why did he have to leave her clueless?

"We are. It's inside the school." Kaiba felt the urge to smirk, amused, but suppressed it. He just kept on walking until they entered the school.

Inside, Serenity was growling. Outside, she was shaking her head. Surprising someone didn't mean leaving them dumbfounded and clueless! Why did he make such a secret out of what he was planning? She wasn't the most patient of people!

"I'm sorry but can I help you?" Obviously one of the teachers wanted to make sure they weren't some random intruders. "Oh, Mr. Kaiba! I didn't recognize you at first; I apologize."

Kaiba stared at the elderly woman blankly. "I'm here to see the exhibition."

"Oh, very well, sir." The woman spoke nervously. She had had one or two encounters with Seto Kaiba a few years ago because of trouble with Mokuba. She shouldn't have probed Kaiba's patience, though. "I'm so sorry you couldn't make it to the opening. But we're very happy your company supported us."

"Yeah, well, listen, lady." He began as if he tried to sort his mind from all of her babbling. Mentally, Serenity snickered, cheerleading Seto already, as she could imagine what came next. "I don't intend to waste my time with small talk with you. I'm here to see the exhibition. Undisturbed I might add. So, please, excuse us."

_**G – O – G – O – Do it one more time – Seto!**_

With a cold glance at the teacher he turned to climb the stairs. The woman stood with her hand to her heart, nodding with an apologizing gaze within her gray eyes. Serenity shrugged at her and followed him.

This is why people claimed the young CEO as being a jerk. Yes, she knew, and there were times she liked it. Whether he was being rude or not, he was being heroic whenever he did. Of course, a girl was allowed to feel attracted to that, right? Serenity smiled up at him, having caught up with the brunette. Cold as ice and yet, a very heated guy.

"What?" Kaiba felt her gaze, darting his own eyes down to her.

"I'm just excited," she told him with an amused little grin. Excited in general, she might add, but kept it to herself.

If you were looking close enough, you could see the corners of his mouth twitch once in a while but that was rare. Anyways, the day was long and maybe he would even show her one of those rare heartbreaking smiles like she had seen once. As long as she wouldn't have to see the creepy one…

"We're here," Seto announced, entering a spacious classroom. He stopped to let the girl follow inside and take in her surrounding. He didn't want to explain any further details of why they were here, where exactly they were, or what was making him to come here with her.

Serenity did as was expected and gazed around. "These look like drawings of kids."

"They are." He followed close behind her as she read the big self-made banner that said 'My future'.

Her eyes scanned the hand-written text beneath as she read,"The pupils of the Domino Elementary School are happy to exhibit their works about the theme: my future." Small letters, written by probably another one of those merely five to nine year-old kids, advised the visitors that they have been sponsored by Kaiba Corporation, supported by teachers and parents. Serenity smiled unaware of the fact, then turned to look at Kaiba, who raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"It's an exhibition, isn't it?" He wasn't quite sure if she thought of it as being adequate for a rendezvous or not, but thinking functionally lay within his nature. He had no intention of going to any museum in the world but she liked art. Here was art, plus, the only one that was worth a visit of Seto Kaiba.

Serenity smiled to his relief. "Yeah," she stepped aside to see the first picture, "but I wonder why we're here. You told me you don't like art. Now I've just seen that you've supported these kids with their exhibition. Well, Seto Kaiba, now drop the bombshell. Are you here to fulfill your duty as the sponsor or are we here because you like these drawings?"

She was teasing him; that much was obvious by the little playful smile that crossed Serenity's features adoringly while her gaze never left the drawing. Seto huffed out a breath of superior knowledge. "Maybe I'm just here because I thought you would like these pictures."

Serenity chuckled to herself and kept watching the great works of those youngsters until she saw something that was looking familiar to her. Narrowing her eyes, she tilted her head to the side; then she snapped with her fingers, getting it finally. "Look at this, Kaiba."

Seto cleared his throat, "It's Seto."

"Huh? What?" Serenity was caught off guard, surprised at his sudden reaction, or to say it better, correction. She slowly raised her thin eyebrows, hardly believing what he had just said. _Mr. Official, Mr. Important, Our Highness, Mr. Formal, Mr. Stick-up-the-butt etc. etc. etc… wanted **her**, Serenity Wheeler, to call him by his first name!_

Her expression said it all to him. "You can't possibly expect me to want someone to call me by my surname on a _date_." He shook his head calmly. "It's Seto."

"Of course… Seto." _There! _She had said it. And it felt good. He was right. _It_ felt right.

"Now, what was it that I should take a look at?" Nodding once slowly, he looked at her and Serenity smiled.

"Oh, this." She turned to show him the drawing that had caught her eyes moments ago. "Look at it. Doesn't just look like your mansion?"

Kaiba looked at it closely, then shrugged. "Many kids wish to live in there. Do you want to see my favorite?"

"Your favorite? Does that mean you have been here before?" If he already had a favorite picture, then he must have been here before!

"Once or twice. Come." Seto's hand reached out to grab the girl's wrist, pulling her gently along to their destination at the opposite of the room.

Becoming aware of their physical connection, Serenity's cheeks started to burn slightly. **_Please, don't go all red now!_** Her silent prayers were heard, though not completely as a light shade of pink stayed amongst the peachy tint of her face.

"This is it."

When they stopped Serenity looked at Kaiba, who was still holding her hand within hers. _Did he realize that at all? _She looked at him intensely, trying to figure out if he knew what he was doing. But she could try how hard she wanted to, there was no sign within his expression. Shrugging mentally, she decided not to question the fact any further—she didn't want him to let go anyway.

Because _this_ definitely felt nice…

She shifted her eyes to look at Seto's favorite painting. Amazed her heart swelled for the young CEO. The drawing's simple content was of three people in front of a small yellow house with big purple flowers around. The sun was painted in a bright yellow color, shining down on the two tall people and the smaller kid in their middle—it was obvious to her. Serenity simply smiled.

"Do you like it?" Kaiba asked calmly, not giving away his own nervousness. And hell, he was damn nervous! He knew pretty well that he was still holding Serenity's small hand within his own, and she wasn't protesting! His heart hammered inside of his chest and he was sure that she could see the pulse on his neck vibrating rapidly.

Not just because he touched her hand, but also because he was about to give away something very private, something he _truly_ liked—apart from Serenity of course. God, and he liked her even a lot more with every passing minute!

"Yes," she smiled at Seto before she turned her attention back to the picture. A little white card was showing the artist's information. "It's drawn by Eleanor, first grade from the—" Serenity paused, seeing where the infant came from.

"The Domino Orphan Care Center." He finished the sentence for her, his inner turmoil slowly beginning to form. He didn't want her to pity him, all he wanted to do was to make her see that he could open up to her.

Serenity looked into Kaiba's blue eyes, mesmerized by them although he didn't look back at her. She smiled and shifted her hazel eyes back at the drawing. "That's so sweet."

"What?" Flatly, as he was puzzled for a moment, he asked. _What was so sweet? She didn't mean him, did she? She better not. He wasn't sweet. He was the iron rock the waves smashed into on the shore, not withering from their severe force. _

"The drawing, it's really sweet of her. Modest, don't you think?"

Kaiba's narrowed, confused facial expression changed into one of surprise as he was staring at the girl next to him. "Yes." He nodded, distracted by the smile that suddenly spread across her face. Assuring mostly himself that he was still concentrating on the topic, once again he added, "Yes."

Enjoying the kids' works, they spent another hour inside the school. Seto was relieved that she indeed liked it. He was doing the best he could to come up with concerning his rendezvous with Serenity and even though admitting it was hard for the young man, he had fun. He already had been to this exhibition twice, admiring the drawings in private. He had taken a risk to come here with Serenity but it had turned out to be a good decision.

He mentally wiped his forehead.

Serenity felt weird instead. Not in a bad way but weird, almost high. This day so far had been exciting and surprising, and it made her happy and joyful to the extent that one would think she had been smoking grass—not that she ever would. Her mind was spinning with pictures of the latest events, words said by her or Seto, moments that she would love to recall for the rest of her life it this would turn out to its best.

She just felt good and tried to concentrate on her heart rather than her mind. And so, Serenity smiled.

"Quick," Seto said shoving Serenity with his hand on her back when they were making their way out of the building. "There's the old lady again!"

Serenity turned to see the teacher they had spoken to two hours ago, her gray-rimmed glasses firmly sitting on her nose. A clacking noise filled the almost empty halls of Domino High as she was making her way towards them. Serenity shifted her eyes at Seto who pulled on her hand, a desperate look to get away crossing his face.

A giggle escaped the girl as she was dragged inside the Corvette and Seto sped off, taking a glance in the mirror as if the old lady would follow them.

"I thought you liked dragons." Serenity laughed at his behavior and received a small glare from the man next to her. "What do we do now?"

"What, now? You presume our date not to be over yet?" He teased, a slight glint of mischief playing within his eyes.

"If our date was over yet, Seto, then I'd have been beyond doubt a bad teacher." She retorted but she honestly wasn't sure if she had been a good teacher. So far, it had seemed that way… "You haven't even invited me out for dinner."

Seto smirked amused, not replying anything at all. He just drove straight to Kaiba Corporation.

Serenity's eyes narrowed slightly in puzzlement as she saw the building of Seto's company ahead of her. _He would not drive with her to work, would he? Oh my gosh, he would… What the hell was that supposed to mean? _Quirking a suspicious, slightly annoyed eyebrow at the CEO of Kaiba Corporation, Serenity awaited an answer without questioning him.

But Seto simply climbed out of the car and gazed at her expectantly. _She didn't want him to open the passenger's door for her, did she? That was not the fierce, redheaded witch he used to know. _"Well?"

"Yeah, well?" She responded climbing out of the car. Then she slammed the door shut and put her hands on her hips. "What are we doing at your company? **Hello!** _This_ is a date if I recall correctly."

At first Kaiba was confused, then a bit shocked at her sudden demeanor but at last he simply chuckled. "I guess you simply have to trust me. Now c'mon."

Reluctantly Serenity followed. She had no clue what could be here that suited any rendezvous in the world. Stepping next to Seto in the lift she looked at the many lights blinking for each floor they were passing. Not too many people were still here. Only a guard down at the entrance had seen them so far. _What was on Kaiba's dirty, perverted mind? _

Serenity shook her head. **_Now wasn't the best time to think of his DVD collection!_**

**Ping!** The doors slid open to reveal the roof. Immediately her eyebrows shot up as she stared at the scene in front of her than back at Seto. There was only a man, grinning stupidly and bowing. His gray-bluish hair stood almost like Tristan's—as far as Serenity knew he wasn't related to anyone working for Seto.

"Mr. Kaiba, you arrived." The man stated the obvious. "I hope we've prepared everything to your fullest approval."

Seto nodded curtly at the goon within his black suit and took hold of Serenity's hand, pulling her along with him. "I wanted to go with you something special but I didn't want you to feel the need to change clothes. I couldn't come up with anything else."

She gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth as she saw what he had done. After passing by the small pyramid of glass windows in the middle of the roof, there was a small table set for two. Candlelight was burning upon it, in the middle was a vase with a single red rose and a waiter was standing there, only waiting for them to make themselves comfortable.

"Impressed?" He asked and turned to look at her. Doubts were playing within his mind. After all, he was no genius when it came to special ideas and he didn't like trust other people's ideas. "Or it is inadequate?"

"It's…" She didn't quite know what to think of it. There was no word that suited to answer his question. In fact, she could hardly believe that he had come up with this. "…romantic."

Her smile took away some of his doubts and he simply shrugged. "Do you like it?"

Now that was a question she could reply to with certainty. "Yes, I do. Of course, I do. I'm kinda… overwhelmed. No one has ever done something like this for me."

"I was hoping so." He muttered and guided the girl to the table, trying his best to be a gentleman when he pulled the chair out for her to sit down.

Once both of them had settled down, they ordered something to drink. Only few time later the waiter brought their mineral water as well as a bottle of wine.

Serenity lifted her brows. "Wine?"

"Yes. Wine simply belongs to a good dinner. You don't have to drink it, if you don't like any."

"No, I'd like a glass of wine, please." She told the waiter with a friendly smile. Then he filled Seto's glass as well.

"Don't get drunk again." Kaiba stated flatly. "This date is supposed to be perfect. It's going to be _the_ perfect date."

She took a deep breath and regarded the always so determined and resolute CEO. "There's this saying, Seto. _We want to be good—not perfect._ I think a date should revolve around that saying."

Kaiba stared at her for a moment, then said, "That makes no sense. What's wrong with being perfect?"

"Nothing." Serenity shrugged and fidgeted with the fork that was lying in front of her. "Except for, well, one thing actually." She lifted her gaze to look at Seto. "Have you ever considered that perfection wouldn't have left us being here today?"

"Oh?" Kaiba crossed his arms, building physically a supporting back up.

"If you had been perfect in your flirting skills, I'd wouldn't have seen a different side of you." She put it nicely with 'not been perfect' and smiled. "And I'm not perfect either."

Seto was at a loss of words. _True_. He would have never considered her helping him, if he himself hadn't been a creep with the matter of chatting up—_it had been humiliating! But Serenity-sensei had been humiliating as well—just with a bit more fun… and she was cute… **no, no, no!**_Cuteness didn't exist in Kaiba's world.

_Serenity was just… someone he cared about. _

_Oh dear, the whole day had been so good and now, for the first time in fact, Seto longed for a little smoke… just one._

"May I serve the dinner, sir? Madam?" The waiter looked at them with a smile and Kaiba snapped out of his sinful thoughts. The waiter lifted the bowls one after one. "There we have a classical curry rice Indian style, which I recommend eating with the duck á la orange."

Serenity raised an eyebrow. _Duck á la orange? What the--- **eeek**, she'd rather eat English food—and she meant from England! **Brrr…**_

"Then we have chicken aubergine and a delicate zucchini risotto and…"

"That's enough." Serenity held up her hand and smiled politely. "Just leave us the trolley here and we'll look what might taste delicious, you know?"

The waiter gave her a puzzled, weird look and glanced for reassurance to his employer for the evening. Kaiba smirked and winked at the boy, waving him off. With a nod the waiter bowed and left.

Serenity sighed in relief and stood up, taking Seto's plate with her. "So, what do you like?"

"I--" He rubbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head afterwards. "It's not supposed to be like that. You definitely shouldn't serve me."

"My treat." Serenity grinned, teasing him with her attitude; she pretty well knew that. "Relax, and don't try to be perfect. Just tell me what you'd like to eat before I have to eat everything myself."

His eyes narrowed thoughtful. "You wouldn't be able to eat all this." In response she laughed at him and shook her head no. He sighed in relief, then shrugged. "I take duck and risotto."

Seto's gaze left his plate more than once, taking a glimpse of the girl opposite. She seemed to be enjoying their date, at the moment slurping on of the broccoli spaghetti inside of her mouth. The penny had dropped and he had finally realized whom he wanted to date frequently. Still, the thought of why he liked her weird habits was beyond his imagination. She wasn't perfect after all.

Caroline Jones had been perfect. And yet so exhausting. Seto had to work hard to establish, showing off his freshly leant skills in dating, but all in all he wasn't himself. A headache was growing slowly during the time he spent with Caroline.

_With Serenity… well, this was another case._ This whole day long he had proved to her that Seto Kaiba could be a gentleman, someone to hang around with, a guy with manners, giving her a wonderful time. But, the fact was, he couldn't keep this up for the rest of his life. He had a company to lead and couldn't spent everyday like this one. He just hoped Serenity would understand.

And yes, he really, truly _hoped_, something he rarely did. _If you look for uncertainty in your life… _That's what Serenity had once told him, and now he guessed it was true. But the other things she told him were true as well. _Someone you care about_… he cared about her.

"What are you staring at?" Serenity raised an eyebrow at Seto, who seemed to be dozing off. "I didn't accidentally teach you to daydream, did I?"

Blue eyes blinked, the CEO's mind snapping out of his thoughts. He stared at her for a moment before he could come up with something to say. "Is the food okay?"

"Oh," She laughed, blushing. "It tastes fantastic! You should try the spaghetti!"

And before Kaiba was even slightly able to reply, Serenity had shoved a fork full with broccoli spaghetti in the direction of his mouth, stopping there abruptly at the closed opening. He stared into her hazel eyes, the nod of her head reassuring him to take a bite, and finally our big boy opened his mouth and chewed on the spaghetti slowly.

Serenity giggled. She could imagine no one had ever even tried to feed the young man, probably never in his entire life. _He needed to loosen up!_ "How does it taste? Do you like it?"

Kaiba just nodded, not knowing how to answer without stuttering. Not only did she dare to feed him, which was childish and stupid, but she also didn't realize! And now, here he sat, not knowing what to tell her. To her, she simply had fun. And if he admitted it, though just to himself, he guessed he had fun as well. _Kinda_… The corner of his mouth twisted into a smile.

Serenity broadly smiled at him—_damn, she wanted to hug the cuteness out of him!_

After the dessert Serenity stretched lazily, cat-like, and Seto chuckled. That was certainly a bit of the mutt's influence, but he couldn't help but be amused. "Say, did you always live with the mutt—sorry, _your brother_?"

"No, why?" Serenity shrugged, the question having caught her unexpected. "I moved in with Joey when my Mom married again two years ago."

"Just wondering. I've never seen you again after Battle City and then you sort of crossed my path often with Yugi's fan group." He crossed his legs and leant back. "What will you do when your brother is married? Even though the thought lets me shudder I suppose he wants to start a family."

"I don't know, yet." She grinned at his curiosity. "As long as I'm still attending university, I can always live on the campus. But I hope to graduate first and then I'll move into my own apartment."

He smiled a little. He liked the thought of Serenity having her own apartment. He could secretly sneak away from the office and spend hours of making out with her when she would be officially his girlfriend. _Yes, that was the plan. He just had to convince her to stay with him for the rest of her life… **sigh**._

Serenity looked upwards into the sky. The night crept slowly forward, erasing daylight and drowning the world little by little into darkness. The sky was clear but the nights were fortunately warm enough, so you could stay out for a long time. So far up from the ground one might think she would be able to touch the stars from here.

Seto suddenly cleared his throat. "Would you like to dance?"

Surprised the girl gaped at him. "Here?"

"Sure. What's the problem?" He shrugged and made his way over to where Serenity was sitting, taking her hand and pulling her up.

"What about music?" She asked when Seto lead her to their "dance floor", the roof of Kaiba Corporation.

With a small smirk Kaiba's eyes only wandered to his 'right hand', that guy with the Tristan-hair-cut, who was never far away from him. Maybe he was his bodyguard or something, Serenity pondered as the goon took off and the music started to play. Seto immediately took the girl's hand into his and wrapped one arm carefully around her waist.

"Isn't that the CD you played for me once?" She looked up into his eyes, her cheeks starting to burn from the sudden closeness.

"Yes." He had chosen this one not to show off his interests—this time. He had chosen it as it was the slowest of rock music he even knew. And so far he liked the effect it resulted: closeness.

Serenity pondered on why he had chosen this kind of music, yet she undoubtedly was glad about it. This way they could dance as close as that time in the club. The music played only lowly as they swayed to the soft rhythm and she almost could hear his heartbeat, increasing as she looked up into his blue eyes.

She smiled a little, a blush rising on her cheeks when he returned her gaze. _Truly beautiful was what he held in his arms and he wouldn't be stupid enough to let go ever again. He should have tried to date her in the first place, that much he knew now._

Mere inches separated their faces from each other, and there was no way Seto was able to take his gaze away from the girl's pretty hazel eyes and her pinkish, moist lips. An unknown want to kiss her filled him, and before he even had the time to debate in his mind if it was the right time, their lips met.

_Oh, how wonderful she tasted! So soft and warm…_ A hunger rose within him.

Serenity wasn't that surprised about the kiss. She had wanted him to kiss her, wanted to kiss him! And now she was surprised by one fact only: that boy truly knew how to kiss. He wasn't lying when he snapped at her. And now she wanted to feel more!

But all of a sudden Seto broke the kiss, letting go of Serenity. His eyes had narrowed as he stared at her in shock, shaking his head. He had backed away from the girl and rubbed his temples, almost glaring at her.

"What?" She couldn't help asking. _Did her breath smell? Why was he behaving like a complete moron now?_ She was confused and angry at the same time!

"This was not supposed to happen!" He said matter of fact, almost growling his response.

"Wha--? Are you kidding me? Where did you think a date might lead? Or have you suddenly changed your mind, like when you were with Caroline? You can always go back to her! But don't you dare ever ask me anything again, Kaiba!" She was pointing an accusing finger at him now as she yelled at him in a fit of rage.

"That's not it, Wheeler!" He shot back, angry with her and himself. _It wasn't that he didn't like the kiss._ "It was not supposed to happen _now_!"

"What the hell are you on about?" The once trustful big hazel eyes had formed into slits of pure anger. "Are you freaking or what?"

"No!" He yelled at her, regretting it the second he did. Taking a deep breath he tried to calm himself and looked at her, forcing his eyes to soften. "It wasn't the right time to kiss you. I wanted this to be perfect. That kiss should have happened when I would have brought you home, traditional, like you taught me."

"Wha--?" Again her words seemed to get stuck within her mouth. Confused she looked back at him, trying to figure out what was on his mind. _He wanted to be perfect! To do everything the way she had taught him… _"Oh my God."

"I don't want this to go too fast. I want it to go smooth and just like it should be. I…" His eyes shifted left and right, hoping to find words that would describe how serious he was about Serenity. He did care a lot for her. "I want this to be your perfect date! I don't intent to fail with this…"

Serenity heard what he said and slowly it dawned on her. She wasn't angry with him anymore, but he was a fool to believe she wanted him still to be perfect.

"Will you stop trying to be perfect, stupid boy!" With another yell she cut him off, making his words become stuck in the back of his throat. Her voice had softened and she looked at him almost pitiful. "Why would you do such thing at all?"

Seto grunted. _Couldn't she see? _"After everything you taught me, I thought the only way to impress you would be perfection. That's what I've learnt during all our lessons."

"Perfection?" Serenity scoffed. _He was a hard case._ "No, I don't want perfection. What I've seen from Seto Kaiba during the last week was anything but perfection. 'Cause that's the Seto I fell in love with."

"I've been---" anything but perfect? That was how his sentence should have ended with. But his mind stopped again abruptly as it pondered over what she had said. "Wait a second... fell in love? Does that mean...?"

Serenity rolled her eyes. "Figures."

He couldn't take his eyes off of her. _She fell in love with him even before he had asked her out? She fell for the man who received punches whenever he tried to chat up a woman?_ He couldn't quite believe it. _She didn't want him to be perfect._

"So, you like me." Slowly he walked to close the gap between them. The corner of his mouth twitched, a little bit of mischief building in his mind. "Why didn't you tell me that _before_ I made the effort to chat up Caroline? You have no clue what torture I've gone through. I might have ended up with serious brain damage from trying to be nice."

Serenity reached out to take his hands with hers and pull him closer. "Will you just shut up now and kiss me again?"

A smile rose on his face, the proper one who had melted Serenity's heart days ago. She lovingly smiled back at him before she touched his lips with hers.

And so they stood, on the roof of Kaiba Corporation, kissing. The amount of time that passed by was the last thing on their mind. What mattered was only the two of them. Nothing else. When the music from the CD ended and the stillness of the night took over, Serenity broke their connection, looking at Seto with a smile that he returned without hesitation. As his arms brushed down her back, leaving the place they had settled before, she shivered.

"What time is it, Seto?"

"Almost eleven. Time to bring you home." He took her hand into his as she nodded solemnly and together they walked back to the lift.

"Seto?"

"Hm?"

"Honestly, who helped you figure out how to spend the day with me?" She smiled at him, pretty well sure he would have been at a loss of ideas that had not come directly from Serenity herself.

Seto shrugged, pretending innocence. "What gives you that idea?"

Serenity just quirked an eyebrow at him, grinning knowingly, about to voice out her greatest fear. "Was it Caroline?"

"No. Certainly not." He almost laughed at this. "If there's no way to avoid telling you, then thank my brother."

"He came up with his?" The lift stopped and they stepped out into the empty hall of Kaiba Corp. Still, Seto was holding Serenity's hand. "My respect. That boy surely knows how to romance."

"That's why I keep him." He smirked satisfied with his joke. "After my mind was clear and I knew that it was you I wanted, the quickest way to come up with something that would impress you, was to call Mokuba. I honestly didn't know how much of a danger he'll become for the female population."

"If he's got anything good from his big brother, I'm sure he'll do the right things." She squeezed Seto's hand before she let go to shift inside the car, as they had walked outside in the parking lot.

"I hope you're right, Serenity." He said and started the engine.

After a twenty minute ride back to where Serenity lived, they walked up the stairs into the building in silence, still holding hands almost timidly. Kaiba stopped in front of the entrance and looked down at the girl who smiled at him, then sighed.

"And there seems to end a wonderful day."

"I was hoping to repeat it some time." Kaiba had to know about if she wanted to see him again, and most of all when. "Of course, not the whole ordeal. I…" His eyes turned serious as he struggled to find words. "You know I'm quite busy at Kaiba Corporation most of the time. There's not much time for me to spend days like this, though I certainly enjoyed it."

"Are you admitting that you had fun?" Serenity grinned as she took both of his hands with her own.

"I'd be a fool not to." He replied smartly as he slid his hands around her waist, pulling her closer. "I'd like to see you again, more often, but…"

"I'm sure we find a way." She smiled, understanding that he still was the hard-working CEO of a huge company. "Just give me a call whenever you'll find ten minutes between all your work." She winked at him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"That's good. Very good." Softly he let his lips brush against hers, joining yet another tender kiss.

Voices from inside the apartment tore them apart. Serenity raised her eyebrows embarrassed as Kaiba narrowed his eyes, facing the door.

"_I can hear Serenity outside with that rich boy."_

"_I'm sure she's fine."_

"_I swear if he harmed one hair of hers, then I'm going to kill him!"_

"_Joey, will you stop peeking trough the key hole!"_

"_I can't see anything. What if he rapes her?"_

"_In front of our door? Do you already need the straightjacket?"_

"_That's enough. I'm going to go outside!"_

"_Joey!"_

"_Hey! The fucking door won't open! Moneybags, I dare you!"_

Kaiba smirked as Joey pounded on the door with his fists heavily. Seto hadn't expected anything else than the mutt trying to run out and ruin their goodnight kiss. **_No way!_** Thinking quickly. Kaiba took hold of the door handle firmly and smirked when Serenity's brother tried to open it without success.

Serenity sighed, embarrassed for her brother. "Sorry Seto, I better get going inside before he throws a fit and hurts himself."

Seto nodded, knowing sooner or later she would go inside anyway, if he wanted or not. "But not without a goodnight kiss."

She chuckled at his demanding tone and kissed his lips briefly before she shrugging. "Goodnight Seto."

"Goodnight." Kaiba stepped back and was about to leave when he turned once again and looked at the girl in front of the yanked open door, in which Joey was standing and glaring daggers at Kaiba. "I'm going to call you."

With a promising smile he left and made his way outside.

"Will you stand there for the rest of the night or will you let me in, Joey?" Serenity tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for entry.

"Huh?" Joey snapped out of his trance and gazed at his sister suspiciously. "Have you spent the whole day with Kaiba? Did he threaten you to do that? Has he done anything to you? Are you okay, Serenity? Did he harass you? What were you two doing out here? Where have you been the whole day? Did I already ask you if you were okay?"

"Goodnight, Joey." Serenity pecked her brother the cheek and left for her bedroom. She had a lot of thinking to do. _Or maybe it was fantasizing… or recalling… or just grinning stupidly. _

_Who would have thought that something that started out of pity and moneymaking would turn into something like love?_

Serenity yawned as she fell down on her bed and smiled, thinking of a certain brunette.

At the other side of Domino Seto Kaiba entered his quiet mansion and steered up the stairs to be in private as soon as possible. He made a mental note to thank Mokuba for his ideas about where to spend the day. But that would have to wait until tomorrow. Now he just wanted to be alone and dream about his very first real girlfriend: Serenity Wheeler.

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End of chapter eleven.

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_**A/N: Please review! I'd like to know what you think. It was more difficult for me to write 'the date' than their arguing—believe me. Reviews appreciated!**_


	12. Who Was To Know?

_A/N: This is the last chapter. There won't be a sequel. If you still want one, read 'Snippets Of A CEO's Life'. THANKS again! Check out my upcoming fics! There'll be soon something else, hopefully even funnier than this one!_

_Thanks Tawnykit for beta-ing. ---hug--- And for your kind words!_

_I don't know much about traditions in Japan, in particular weddings. I settled for an European version instead._

_Sangha_

_PS. Serenity's 5ft 3. I do not know if guys like shorties but I suppose yes they do. ? If he dared calling her a midget she would probably kick him in the groin. Anyway, funny questions…_

_**To Generic Hero:** You're absolutely right about the exhibition—that's one of the reasons I made Mokuba to the "brain" behind the ideas of how to spend the day. Determined Seto knows there'll be sacrifices on his way to get the girl… Anyway, I'm glad you like the story!_

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**How To Find A Girlfriend In Seven Days?**

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Chapter Twelve

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"**Who Was To Know?"**

-

"I know pronounce you as husband and wife." With a blessing smile the priest clamped his hands together and nodded encouragingly. "You may kiss the bride."

A tear slid down her face and she choked a sob, dabbing beneath her eyes with a little white handkerchief. _This was so romantic! _The groom kissed his bride deeply, grinning afterwards rather stupidly, and kissed her again. The audience clapped their hands as the couple waved and together walked slowly out of the small church.

Seto gazed by his side to Serenity and furrowed his brows. _Was she crying?_ Tilting his head his eyes observed the girl intently and indeed, a tear was making its way down her cheek. _Oh no, what did he do wrong this time?_

"Why are you crying?" He nudged her with his finger and she turned.

"Why not? This is so romantic!" She exclaimed sobbing and blew her nose briefly.

Seto handed her another handkerchief with a blank expression. "But doesn't that make you happy? Your brother's now officially married to the Harpy Lady."

"I am happy." She sniffed and blew her nose again, handing the handkerchief back to Seto. "That's why I'm crying!"

He glared at the offered item and raised an eyebrow before reluctantly stuffing it back into his pocket. "I don't understand that."

Serenity looked up at the CEO with the puzzled expression and sighed. "Never mind."

Still, Seto wasn't the brightest light on the Christmas tree when it came to things like showing emotions, but at least he tried. Linking her arm into his she smiled at him. "Let's go. I'm looking forward too see the wedding cake."

He nodded, guiding the girl out of the church. Other friends of Joey and Mai had already followed the newly wedded item and gathered in front of the church. Seto growled in dismay lowly, seeing the mutt and his wife climbing inside of his limousine. _His!_ _Why couldn't he decline any request of Serenity? Mokuba, of course, had fallen straight into his brother's back, exclaiming that it would be a nice gift to them, lending the limo._

At least Seto hadn't the burden of buying a gift anymore. Serenity waved at her brother and Mai as the car slowly began to move, honking on its way. The others would soon follow.

After Seto and Serenity had arrived the location for the wedding's celebration—a hotel at the far end of Domino chosen by Mai—Kaiba strolled after his girlfriend with his hands inside of his pockets, when his eyes fastened on her backside. For the bridesmaids Mai had chosen dresses in apricot and with a small smirk Kaiba was just mentally pointing out how well it suited _his_ girlfriend.

The dress had a low cut down its backside and at the front was a simple neck holder for the silky material to stay in place. Although Seto certainly liked his girlfriend's very long hair, she gladly had it pulled up with little apricot flowers decorating her auburn hair. Last but not least, Seto decided as his eyes examined the lower backside—_he owned the cutest ass around; that was for sure!_

**Property of Seto Kaiba.** _What would she say it he suggested to have a tattoo in her cute butt? Maybe she would be okay with the KC logo—two letters certainly won't hurt that much._ He mentally snickered at the thought when he came to an abrupt halt, almost crashing into her.

Serenity had stopped in front of Joey and Mai, hugging her brother. "Congrats, Joey! I'm so happy for you! You're such a cute couple! I love you both!"

Seto suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at the scenery while Serenity stepped in front of Mai, hugging her as well but being careful not to step on her utterly white dress. _Hypocrites_. _Either that or the mutt was simply a loser._

"Congrats Mai! You're such a beautiful bride!" Serenity told the blonde with a bright smile.

"Thanks, hun." The bride winked with a grin upon her lips. "I'm sure you'll be even more beautiful once you get married…someday."

A glare from Joey made Serenity almost flinch. "Take your time; don't rush anything, Serenity."

Joey turned his head at Kaiba, glaring at him from under bangs of slightly shorter hair after Mai had pressured him to _at least_ visit a hairdresser before their wedding. Kaiba returned the glare with delight, stuffing his hands casually inside of his pockets. Mentally he cursed. He was next to congratulate the newly weds. Not that he wanted to!

"Mutt." Kaiba gave a curt nod.

"Moneybags." Joey nodded in response, his stare not faltering under Kaiba's.

"Nice wedding and…good luck."

Joey nodded his thank you and Seto turned to the bride who crossed her arms, waiting for Kaiba to say something challenging like usual.

"Wheeler." He said indicating that she had a new surname. "About time he married you. Congratulations."

Mai indeed smiled. She hadn't expected him to be _that_ nice. And nice he was, considering that he usually was a jerk towards them. She guessed Serenity had some influence after all.

"Thank you, Kaiba." Mai smirked at the tall man, remembering that it had been quite a shock to Joey when his sister announced she would have Seto Kaiba as her company. "Nice having you here since you weren't even invited."

"I told you I would make sure of that." Slyly he added and stood aside when other quests followed.

The shock had hit Joey quite thunderously upon learning that Kaiba was Serenity's company. The question popping up immediately afterwards was 'why'. Looking innocent, she had commented casually that she was dating the CEO…by the way. Twenty minutes later Joey had been conscious again, just to wake with a really awkward headache.

Eventually, Joey decided that he couldn't do anything about it anyway and vowed to his sister to have an eye on Kaiba. That's the least and the only thing he was able to do. Thankfully, he had been busy with the wedding preparations—otherwise he might have gone ballistic.

Serenity smiled, seeing her brother. He had been tough for her and she loved him dearly.

"Congratulations Joey, you winner! You've got the most beautiful bride ever." Valon scratched his brown-haired head sheepishly. "Err…and thanks for inviting me!"

"You're welcome, dude!" Joey grinned.

"Whose idea was it to invite the freak gang?" Kaiba whispered and elbowed Serenity a little, observing the area with his eyes for any of Valon's weird buddies.

She shrugged a little helplessly. "No idea. I suppose Joey's… or Mai's. And who do you mean by freak gang?"

"Never mind." Seto turned to watch other guests chatting away with each other. Tea, who was standing with Yugi and his Grandpa at the side, waved at him but he just glared back at her, making her sweat-drop. Nearby Tristan Taylor was trying his best to glare daggers at the CEO. Kaiba had the sudden urge to smile at him.

Valon continued to give the bride compliments until he stepped aside, meeting an unknown face. "Oh, I don't know you. My name is Valon, are you related to Mai?"

Serenity sweat-dropped and blushed, shaking the brunette's hand as he reached for hers. "No, I…actually I'm Joey's sister."

"Oh, really? I never knew he had such a cute sister." Valon grinned. He stopped the moment he realized that someone else glared down on him.

Serenity followed the young man's stare to her boyfriend, who was glaring with a piercing, icy cold pair of blue eyes down on his rival. She swallowed frowning.

"You can let go of her hand now," Seto said between gritted teeth. Instinctively, Valon gulped and looked down at his hand, realizing he still held Serenity's. Pulling away quickly, he swallowed.

"Seto Kaiba, isn't it?" Valon had no clue why the CEO was glaring at him, but he believed in the rumors that the man was an ice block.

"Yes, but for you it's simply _her boyfriend_." Kaiba replied pulling Serenity close to him. She glared at him in response. _She wasn't a child!_

"I…I didn't know…honestly." Valon stammered and decided to leave—rather quickly.

Serenity raised an eyebrow at Seto. "Jealous?"

"Not when you'll finally have your tattoo." He smirked and kissed her forehead.

"What tattoo?" She frowned, then narrowed her eyes. "Seto Kaiba, tell me immediately what's on your mind? What kind of tattoo are you talking about?"

"Nothing. I'm going to tell you later." Seto replied and pulled her close for another kiss.

"Get a room!" A voice interrupted sharply as Kaiba groaned at the sight of a 'long missed' blonde girl. Rebecca Hawkins_. He had 'loved' that kid from the beginning. She was such a smart ass._

"Got one! Let's go!" Mokuba chirped from behind and grinned at Rebecca whose eyes narrowed immediately. Rebecca blushed as she turned to see Mokuba—_the other Kaiba_—right behind her. She hadn't seen the boy in ages. _Hell, he was a sight…better than when she was drooling over a picture of Gackt!_

"Hey…" She stupidly waved.

Mokuba caught the waving hand and pulled it down gently to place a kiss upon the back. "Enchanté, Mademoiselle."

Seto laid his arm across Serenity's shoulders and pulled her closer. _Just to be safe._ His brother was a trustful, faithful soul but when it came to girls…Seto rather liked to have her by his side.

"Hey, everybody sit down please!" Joey suddenly yelled across the room in an ear-deafening manner. "It's time to cut the cake!"

Serenity sat down with Seto by her side, waiting for the newlyweds to cut the cake. _She had become damn hungry for the meantime! _

"Dear guests, dear family and friends," Joey started rather formally but grinned. "I want to start with a huge thank you to all of you for coming here…"

Seto mentally yawned already. _The mutt was trying to speak to the audience—he should have just cut the cake and fine. But no, he wanted a speech. _For all Seto cared; he wanted this day to be over. _At least the afternoon would be a start. The mutt and his wife would fly into their honeymoons in the late hours today but Kaiba would stay here—with Serenity._

"…and that's how I started dating Mai…" Obviously Joey wasn't near finished with his speech.

Seto's head turned left, drawing an arm around Serenity from behind. He leant close to her ear and whispered: "Do you realize that tonight we'll share a room for the first time? A bed even…maybe."

The girl raised her eyebrows. _Of course she knew! _But Kaiba left her in wonderment once again like he did so often at the awkwardness of the situation and the moment he chose to point out something like this to her. She smiled to herself mischievously and laid her hand on his thigh.

"Yes, I know." She whispered sweetly, running her hand along his leg. "But don't jump into conclusions."

His eyes widened at her touch and furrowed at her comment. "I prefer calculations."

"That's even worse." She glared at her boyfriend, then realized that she had been quite loud because Joey was giving her a puzzled look. Serenity winked at her brother, smiling innocently. Once the guest's attention was all back to Joey, she glared at Kaiba.

"Do you calculate sleeping with me?" She hissed in a rough whisper.

"No, but now that you mention it…"

"Seto!" She tried to keep her voice low as she spoke through gritted teeth.

Quickly he kissed her to silence the little woman. "I love it when you're angry. Don't worry about tonight. I promise to behave."

Relieved she smiled and squeezed his hand before she paid her attention back to the words of her brother. Or she tried. _Not that it hadn't crossed her mind that she would be alone with him for the first time—overnight. And they had made out often during the latest weeks. She could imagine…_

_**No, no, no!** __**Not now.**__Now was the time to think about her brother's wedding, not about anything else. By the way, what was Joey trying to tell them? _

Seto leant down to her ear again. "But it isn't impossible, is it? There's still the chance that we might---"

"Just shut up!" She hissed louder than expected and heads snapped to look at her.

Joey blinked. _Yes, his speech had been long so far but did she have to be that straightforward?_ He looked at her with raised eyebrows and a frown when she began blushing madly.

"No, no, no… I didn't mean you when I said… Joey? I'm sorry. Please…go on." Serenity's head sank. She growled watching Seto from the corner of her eyes.

"Well, where was I? Yes, when we have met again and this time…" The groom began and by this time even his wife rolled her eyes along with the guests, thinking that he should just cut the damn cake and stop babbling.

Seto sighed thoughtfully. _He should ask Mokuba how to approach Serenity. Whatever Kaiba said seemed to be wrong while on the other hand, his little brother was already having a hand on the blonde witch's back, grazing her skin softly. _

Seto had an urge to vomit_. Mokuba had no taste. _

_But he was good. _

With a frown Seto pondered whether to ask the raven-haired teen for his advice or not. _Why had everything to be so difficult for him and for Mokuba so easy? He went along, said hello and had at least one more girl following him._

Serenity's eyes watched her boyfriend musing about his thoughts. She had come to know him more than anyone else, except for Mokuba, and she could imagine where his thoughts had drifted.

"Seto?"

"Hm?"

She gave a warm smile. "You know, of course I have thought about what you said. But I really don't want to think about it _now_. And you also shouldn't brood over it. Besides, Joey and Mai will be on their honeymoon for two whole weeks."

_Two weeks. That meant fourteen days. That was three hundred and thirty-six hours. Or twenty thousand one hundred and sixty minutes. Which were one million two hundred nine thousand six hundred and sixty seconds. Hm…should be enough time!_

Seto nodded understandingly in agreement. "You're right."

"By the way, we've got a life's time for everything." She tried to point out that she wanted to stay with him forever.

"Yes, but life can be over any day." He leant down to kiss her before she could respond. "Like your brother's. If he keeps ranting there your sister-in-law will throttle him. If the guests aren't faster, that is."

Serenity shifted her eyes to Joey, who was speaking of how he had proposed to Mai. Worriedly she glanced at the bride who glared at the groom.

"I've never even dreamt of Mai saying yes when…" Joey stopped when Tea run her index finger along her throat, indicating for him that he should finally stop talking. He swallowed glancing down at Mai who smiled uneasily and pulled him down.

"I think you should cut the cake now, honey." She whispered and nodded reassuring him when he raised his brows questioning.

Taking the knife Joey grinned. "Err…well, eat and drink as much as you can!"

Everyone clapped their hands at his comment and smiled, relieved that finally they could still their growing hunger. Serenity quickly jumped to get some cake, almost stumbling over Mokuba who had been nearly quicker—but only nearly. _What was that with those Wheelers and running for food? _

Seto excused himself and went onto the veranda, inhaling the air deep inside his lungs. He would like to inhale other things, but thanks to Serenity, to whom he had vowed not to smoke anymore, he had no cigarettes. Six weeks had passed since his first date with Serenity and he did not regret one single second spent with her.

_How strange._ That was all he ever wanted. But he had wanted it just for the fact that he _wanted_ it. How was he supposed to know that love wasn't a matter of want? If it was, had he wanted Serenity? No…he supposed not. And now here he was, on the mutt's wedding with the world's sexiest girl alive!

Seto looked down at his feet. _The thoughts he had!_ Diseased, he would have said weeks ago. But if love was a disease then he wouldn't even want to be cured. His eyes drifted to the mass of people inside the room. Serenity was obviously enjoying herself, the wedding and of course the cake. With a deep breath he strolled back inside. He didn't want to leave her alone too long between all those nerds and geeks!

Time passed by quickly. During dinner time Seto tried to stay sober as people started to drink wine and other, stronger drinks provided by the bride and the groom. He did still hate alcohol and with Duke Devlin next to him getting drunk pretty fast, he cursed mentally every time the 'poof' touched him.

"Did you know, Kaiba, that I've always wanted to be Serenity's first?" Duke giggled as he laid a hand upon Kaiba's shoulder, who raised a disapproving eyebrow, glaring the hand down—if that was even possible.

"You should have lived in reality in the first place." Seto replied dully once again. His remarks hadn't worked so far and Devlin didn't seem to get it. Kaiba was annoyed, yet, he tried to ignore the dice-dude for Serenity's sake.

"There would have been a chance if…" Duke trailed off, staring at the girl of his desire, who was talking with Tea across the room.

Kaiba could swear that Devlin was drooling. He closed his eyes briefly. It was disgusting and sickening to him to great extent. He didn't even want to think of what exactly the raven-haired 'beauty-queen' was talking about. Serenity's first mistake he could have been but nothing else and if he kept ranting about things like that, Seto was sure, he would soon puke all over him.

"Hey Kaiba," Duke inched closer and secretively ducked his head, looking like a spy on a mission. "Tell me, have you already seen her naked?"

"Excuse me," Kaiba stood to his whole six foot one, gladly missing the question of Duke. He hadn't listened but desperately tried to suppress the urge to scream instead. With no further comment he went, where, he didn't know—as far away as possible from the dicey-boy, he supposed.

Serenity sipped from her glass of wine and smiled as Tea told another tale of Yugi and how he beat another idiot that dared to challenge him.

"Ah, enough of Yugi and me now," Tea exclaimed and darted her eyes upon Serenity. "How are things going between you and Kaiba? I admit, with dating him you've put us all in quite a shock, not only poor Joey."

"He'll live. And you will too." Serenity grinned and shrugged. How she hated to explain herself for dating the CEO! "We can't complain."

"You're not giving away much, darling." Mai cut in and poked Serenity's ribs, resulting in a glare from the younger woman. "Oh, so he's been tutoring you in the infamous glare, huh?"

"Uh, Mai, will you stop that?" The smallest of the women pouted. Mai always used to tease her about Kaiba but not in a bad way. At least Mai wasn't pressuring her to tell anything too private and Serenity was grateful for that. "I just don't know what to tell you."

"God," Tea rolled her eyes at the comment. "Everything! Do you love him? Does he tell you he loves you? How often? Is he generous towards you? Can he kiss? Or does he suck? Does he wear boxers or briefs? Does he have weird habits we don't know so far? Does he snore maybe? C'mon Serenity, there must be something to tell us!"

Serenity frowned, thinking. "I…he…well…_no_!" She shook her head almost violently. With her face glowing red like fire, she stomped her foot. "I won't tell you something like that!"

"She loves him." Tea stated dryly and nodded at Mai, who did as well.

"Yes, she loves him." The other woman agreed and Serenity turned even redder than before!

"Who does she love?" They were interrupted by the topic of their conversation who gazed at the women with the usual cold, blank and indifferent look he wore most of the time.

Tea laughed nervously and winked while Mai was shrugging and starting to whistle a senseless tune.

"There! Haha! Joey! I think he needs my help with…err…something." Mai's sudden excuse made Tea sweat-drop and flush in slight anger before she was left to watch the bride escape quickly. The blue-eyed girl looked around in panic.

"I think I saw Yugi over there." Kaiba sneered realizing she was only looking for an excuse to leave as well. Not that he minded.

"My…oh…err…'Bye!"

They pair watched Tea disappear quickly through the crowds, then gazed at each other. Kaiba did not waste any time as he wrapped his arms around the girl's waist and bend down to whisper into her ear closely. "Dance with me."

"I thought you'd never ask." Serenity smiled at his request and let herself be guided to the dance floor, putting her hands on his shoulders.

Kaiba smirked a little and looked down at her. "So, you love me?"

"You know I do." She responded with a chuckle.

"I just like to hear you say it, over and over again." Purposefully he let his fingertips wander from her lower back up her spine. "Say it again."

Serenity giggled at his demeanor and rolled her eyes. "I love you."

"Again."

"I love you."

"One more time."

"I love you."

After the third time Serenity shouldn't have to repeat it again as she found his lips pressed against hers instead, joining them in a loving kiss. Involuntarily her arms wrapped themselves around his neck, her fingers slowly creeping up within his hair. Seto pulled her closer, pressing her hips against him as his mouth slowly roamed to kiss her neck, stopping there.

"I love you, Serenity." His lips emitted the words as his voice nearly cracked, not being used to apply these words often. Nevertheless, during the last six weeks he had said them more often than in his entire life at all.

She released a sigh of bliss as she wrapped her arms tightly around him, embracing the man closely. Words were not necessary. He understood her.

"Hey!" Mai's voice broke their embrace and they looked at the newlyweds. "I'm afraid it's getting late and Joey and I have to catch a plane."

"Yes, it's about time we leave you to yourselves." Joey added and pulled his bride closer to him, pecking her cheek.

"There's only one thing left to do. So if you'd be kind and follow us outside…" Mai gave a wicked grin and gestured with her bride's bouquet.

Serenity sighed, realizing the evening was almost over. Guests were wishing the couple of the day all the best, a fantastic honeymoon, thanking them and saying their goodbyes for the evening. _So this had been the day when her brother had married the love of his life. Would Serenity's day be as wonderful as this had been? Maybe even better? Worse? Was Seto the man she would marry? _

_If he asked her right now she'd say yes! She was a hopeless romantic…_

Gazing up at him she smiled. "I'm going to tell them goodbye."

Seto nodded and followed her slowly outside where the couple was already in front of the limousine, still shaking hands with their friends, receiving best wishes and hugs. It took Serenity time to finally approach her family.

"Serenity!" Joey exclaimed the moment he saw her in front of him and wrinkles exposed on his forehead as he frowned. "Take care when we're gone. Don't let anyone inside the apartment—not even Kaiba. You haven't known him long enough."

The girl rolled her eyes as Joey continued. "I've called Mrs. Sparrow from next door and told her to look in on you once or twice. You can even eat dinner with her, she told me. Don't stay out long in the evening---"

"Joey! Will you stop that now?" Serenity shivered by the thought of dining with Mrs. Sparrow. The old witch from next door was a scheming spy, who would tell Joey the exact time Serenity would leave and come back, either with Kaiba or not, or even someone else. "I can take care of myself."

"But—"

"Ah Joseph, she's right. Serenity's not a little kid anymore." Mai stood up for Serenity and nodded reassuringly when Joey raised a suspicious eyebrow. "I'm sure she'll handle being without us pretty well."

"Fine. If you say so." Joey spread out his arms and grabbed his younger sister to hug her tightly. "Take care, little sis."

"I will. Have a nice honeymoon, Joey." Serenity stepped back with a grin and winked. "Make sure I'll be auntie Renny soon!"

For a moment Joey stood there dumbfounded until he realized what his sister had been talking about. Sheepishly he scratched the back of his head and grinned, blushing even. Serenity hugged Mai goodbye and wished her a wonderful honeymoon as well, telling her to take care of Joey.

"Now, before we finally leave…" Mai spoke up louder to the audience waiting outside. "…I've got one more thing to do. Girls and women, get together!"

"Oh, she's going to throw the bride's bouquet!" Serenity grinned and raced to the group of women waiting impatiently to catch the prize.

Kaiba watched with interest. Part of him didn't like games like these, not believing in old sayings or traditions. But another part of him wanted her to catch the damn bouquet. _For one, she believed in sayings. And second, he'd like her to be the winner over the other random look-like-nothing chicks. _

All eyes were fixed on the flying bouquet after Mai had thrown it high in the air. It flew up, then as if hesitating it seemed stuck in the air for a moment before it finally came down. Tea seemed to have to longest arms as she stretched and was about to touch the prize she yearned to gain. Unfortunately a fingernail broke at the contact and she flinched, resulting in the bouquet falling straight into Rebecca Hawkins' hands. The young blonde shrieked upon seeing that she had caught the '_evil'_ bouquet and threw it straight away! _No way was she going to get married—ever._

Serenity suddenly found herself suddenly with the bride's bouquet in her hands. How it had gotten there she didn't even know. But she shrugged and smiled, shifting her gaze to look at Seto. _Hey, after all she had it, hadn't she? _

Kaiba tilted his head to the side and raised one eyebrow slowly._ If nobody disqualified her she was the winner. _A satisfied grin spread upon his face by the thought. _Yes, she was in his team! The victory belonged to them! Haha! Yugi, your team lost! LOSER…_

"Earth to Seto!" Mokuba waved a hand in front of his brother's face until the mentioned one blinked.

"What?"

"Seems like you've got to marry Serenity, ha-ha!" Mokuba laughed until suddenly he stopped and gazed irritated to his brother, scratching his head in contemplation. "Err…I've got to talk to Becs though."

"Becs?" _Who the hell was Becs? And what kind of name was Becs? _Seto sent his brother a weird look of questioning. _Becs wasn't a guy, was it? _

"Yeah, Becs. _RE-BEC-CA_! Or just…Becs." Mokuba shrugged, leaving the CEO staring behind as the younger Kaiba wanted to have a word with the blonde devil in disguise.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose Seto tried to focus on what was important. _Ah, yes! Serenity! Where was she? _He spotted her not so far away, waving at her brother who was climbing with his wife into the limousine. Only seconds later they were gone, no Wheeler left apart from Seto's very own!

"Hey, look. I caught the bride's bouquet." She smiled as she approached him.

"I knew we would win!" Kaiba laughed haughtily and rubbed his palms together.

"We?" Serenity tipped his nose and he snapped out of his stupor, focusing on his girlfriend.

"Yes, you and I. We're in the same team. Remember?" He drew his arm around her shoulder but she just shook her head at him and laughed.

"Yeah, I guess we're a team." She slipped her hand into his and pulled him along, licking her lips already. "Let's go back inside. I believe there's some of the ice-cream bomb left in the freezer."

"I'll see to the whipped cream." Bleakly the words escaped his mouth as they held their hint.

While the quests slowly vanished and the room became empty Serenity and Seto didn't even realize. He sat on the kitchen floor, leaning against the counter, next to him the left-overs from their ice-cream attack while she was sitting opposite him with her legs crossed and her back against the fridge, sighing blissfully.

"I'm impressed you could take that much," he said and smirked.

"Me? I'm impressed you didn't give up after the third round." She smacked his foot playfully with her own.

"Giving up isn't an option for me. But I admit, I feel just a bit sick now." He snorted and leant his head back, taking a deep breath.

"I told you not to take too much of the whipped cream. Three portions of ice-cream isn't that bad, but whipped cream always makes me feel sick." Serenity stretched lazily before she crawled over to kneel in front of her boyfriend. "How sick are you exactly?"

"Depends." His hands encircled her waist.

"Too sick to kiss me?" She pouted but he answered her question sooner than expected with his lips upon hers.

Deepening their kiss none of them had the willpower to break their connection when Seto pulled them up together. Easily he lifted her from off the ground and led them towards the door, breaking the kiss only to look at her with a small twist of his lips.

"To our chamber, please." Serenity grinned, running her fingers through his hair.

"I'm going to get our jackets." Kaiba released the girl hesitantly and let her down on her feet before he went to the closet down the corridor. Serenity shuffled her feet waiting as Seto pulled the closet's door open and stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide, then glaring.

"What wrong?" Crossing the distance Serenity tried to look past her tall-grown boyfriend. "Oh my…hallelujah!"

Within coats and jackets there was Mokuba snogging some certain blonde!

Tapping his fingers impatiently against the wooden door Seto scowled, watching the scenario in front of him. Finally the point of his attention realized their stalkers and looked up with a grin.

"What?" Mokuba asked, not even releasing the flushed looking girl.

"Would it be too much to ask for you pass our jackets from out of the _closet_?" Seto requested emotionlessly.

"Err…well, do want me to be nice or honest?" The younger Kaiba emitted in a slightly mischievous tone, making his brother roll his eyes.

"Forget it!" Seto slammed the door shut and turned to Serenity. "See what I mean?"

Laughing she took his hand and pulled him along down the corridor. "You're just envious we didn't come up with the idea to make out in the closet."

"Would you?" the question shot at Serenity. He stared at her with hope in his eyes as they kept on walking until they had reached their room.

"We don't need the closet." She slipped the key into the hole and unlocked the door.

A grin spread upon Seto's lips before he captured hers in another kiss, taking her by surprise. She yelped as he lifted her again, shutting the door with a kick on his foot, and carried her over to the bed, where he laid her down. Not even giving her the chance to break their kiss Seto climbed on top of her and began trailing kisses down her neck, making her gasp.

Out of the blue, he stopped and threw himself on his back with his head on the pillow. Seto took her small hand and pulled her within his arms, kissing the top of her head.

"Funny how things can turn out." He spoke as if in deep thought and Serenity looked up at him.

"You're talking about us?"

"Sure."

"Yeah, but good." She yawned and rested her head on his chest.

Kaiba stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, listening to her breathing, which became steadier with every passing second. She would soon fall asleep. Closing his eyes he stifled a yawn.

He was not lonely anymore. Who was to know?

-

The End.

-

_**It's over, finally. Please review! **_

_**Thanks to **Abbs04, Black Arcana, BLACK EYELINER89, BlUeEyEs89, Dark Magicain Girl Of Chaos, DMG-0787, ForgottenParadise, Generic Hero, Goddess of the Winter, Holypanl, Iluvevilyamis, inuyashaandkaibalover, InuYashasLucky13, Jean-Luc Lover, Kariah, Keira Valentie, KiWingz, Komo Pineconeseed, Lil Sleepy Gurl 004, lilxangelxsweetz, louisiana-southern-belle, PacketOfPocky, Paine 45, pink-strawberries, Raina Azaria, Rajalily, Redrae, Rynne Lockheart, Sasha13AnimeFreak, Setine, shanichan11, Stary Eyes, svakee2000, syunikiss, Tatsumaki Aphrodite, Tenshi no Namida, Toriyamiyasha, xxxChIhArUxxx, Yuugizbabe** for making it your favorite! **_

_**Thanks to **Abbs04, ANAYAS-CREATER, riadne Bassarid, blue heartzs, Chibi-Kari, Dark Magicain Girl Of Chaos, ForgottenParadise, Generic Hero, Holypanl, Kaiyu Onibaba, Keira Valentine, Kiweeo, KiWingz, Komo Pineconeseed, lilxangelxsweetz, Raina Azaria, Rajalily, ray1, Rynne Lockheart, Sasha13AnimeFreak, Setine, shanichan11, Slythervixen, Snickerdoodles4u** for putting this story to your alert list.**_

_**Thanks to** Abbs04, ANAYAS-CREATER, Ariadne Bassarid, Asura, Black Arcana, BLACK EYELINER89, blue heartzs, Caramel Rain, cherry-star-aus, Chibi-Kari, darkrose139, DoomDevilGirl , Flowerperson, ForgottenParadise, Generic Hero, ggg (whoever you are), Gingitsune Wings, Holypanl, Jonny, kagome, kaibafan101 ,Kaiyu Onibaba, Kariah, Keira Valentine, KiWingz, Komo Pineconeseed ,lilxangelxsweetz, momma4, pink-strawberries, Pippin, Raina Azaria, Rajalily, Random-Person, ray1, Rynne Lockheart , Sango A.R, Sasha13AnimeFreak, Sesshomarusgirl123, Setine, shanichan11, sheikgoddess, Slythervixen, Snickerdoodles4u, svakee2000, Tawnykit, Tigresita, Toriyamiyasha, vla1diva, weirdovalex, xXRoseGoddess874Xx, xxxChIhArUxxx, and Yami John** for your reviews!**_

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